The Bishi Mafia
by Blue-Eyed Chocobo
Summary: After their most coveted items go missing, the bishies from the gaming world, led by the FF7 world, wage war on the bishies of the anime world. Meanwhile, Genesis and the rest of Gaia must endure yet another onslaught of Sephiroth’s madness.
1. Chapter 1: True Suffering

**A/N:** I've decided to post this in the FF7 section because the story is centered around the FF7 characters, and since there are many character cross-overs, I couldn't choose just two to put this in that category.

This idea came to me when I learnt the meaning of the word "Bishi". This happened while I was in an extremely sleep deprived state when almost anything made me laugh hysterically, so please excuse the complete stupidness of this story's concept.

If this generates some interest, I will continue, but this is mainly side-step to try and get me writing again. Requests to put in more characters will be considered, but I might need information about the character before I write them.

**Planned characters from:** FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, Zelda, RE4, OHSHC, Fruits Basket, Vampire Knight, Pokemon, Hetalia, and probably more.

***All characters are property of their respective games/anime. **

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Chapter 1: True Suffering

* * *

"Hm?" Cloud caught the towel around his waist before it could unravel as he rubbed another towel on his head, drying his golden hair. He re-secured the towel around his waist and wiped away some of the perspiration on the mirror to look at himself. His hair was still drenched, fresh from the shower, and some drops of water dripped slowly off onto his shoulders and chest.

He plugged in his blowdryer and proceeded to enjoy the hot blast of air through his hair; a small smile of content crept onto his face. Once his hair was dry, he reached to the mirror to open up the cabinet. Almost immediately, his mood shifted from pleasant, to annoyed, to almost angry. "What the hell?" he muttered under his breath as he pushed some products out of the way and took some out to see what was behind it. "Where _is_ it?!"

**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'A MONTH'?!"

Cloud heard a commotion as he sharply rounded the corner to the large store in the Shinra building. Zack and Reno had beaten him to the store and were now harassing the shopkeeper.

"This is insane! Don't you know your customers at all!?" Reno screamed, leaning over the counter to get in the shopkeeper's face.

"Look, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it!"

Zack turned to the door when Cloud walked in, his hair drooped down, covering his eyes a bit. "You, too, huh?" Zack's own hair was a large black mess while Reno held his hair under a black wool hat.

"Goddammit!" the Turk grumbled as he stood back and crossed his arms. "This is just unbelievable."

"Wait," Zack looked from Cloud to Reno and back again. "Someone's got to have some in this building."

The three looked at each other for a moment before Cloud broke the silence. "Sephiroth!"

**

Cloud, Zack, and Reno rode the elevator up and hurried out down the hall as fast as they could. Two Second Classes were running towards them frantically and Zack called out to one of them. "Hey! Kunsel! What happened?"

"It's Sephiroth!" Kunsel said, stopping in front of Zack while his partner ran off. "He's lost his mind! I wouldn't go in there if I were you." Kunsel continued on after his partner.

Zack scratched his head. "Is that right?" He gave a slight chuckle. "it's like he goes insane every time something new happens."

"Come on!" Reno called out, running alongside Cloud, "Hurry up!"

**

The trio reached the end of the hall to find the door to Sephiroth's office wide open, and inside, a complete wreck. There was a rather large dent in the door. Below it, a pile of splint wood, formally a chair, lay grimly on the floor. Papers were littered over the tables and floors, drawers and cabinets open with their contents pulled out carelessly, and in the corner, a large cupboard came crashing down with a boom. Sephiroth stood over it, fuming.

Angeal was leaned against a wall beside one of the open drawers. "I don't know why you're freaking out so much over this. You look exactly the same without your two spikes."

"That's not the point," Sephiroth spoke slowly, his voice low.

"I guess our question is answered," Zack mused as he walked in, stepping over the papers. Reno followed him but Cloud had spotted something in the rubble in front of the door.

He knelt down and began to pick through the pile of wood. There was a small piece of paper inside, heavily creased. He picked it up to examine it. It was a light pink card with happy white cartoon rabbit heads bordering the words. It read:

"You've taunted us with your gravity defying hair for the last time! Now, it's our turn! -Honey"

Confused, Cloud walked into the office and showed it to Sephiroth. "Have you seen this?"

Sephiroth loomed over to Cloud, took the card from his hand. He looked almost ridiculous holding such a cute thing as he read it. "So he is the one responsible for this madness."

"Hm?" a chorus of questioning sounds came from Angeal, Zack, and Reno.

"Who is he?" Cloud asked.

"He is the one I am going to kill if he doesn't smarten up."

Angeal pushed himself off the wall and was about to say something when Reno interrupted. "Look, there's something on the back," he pointed out.

Sephiroth flipped the card and read the words. "We have gathered all of your Concrete Feather gel and products from all corners of your world. Now you'll know the true suffering of flat hair!" Sephiroth threw the card to the side violently.

"Fine," he breathed, "if it is a battle he wants, he will get it." Sephiroth turned to everyone, his left hand raised dramatically in the air. "Go. Gather our brothers from afar. Unite our fellow warriors once again. Come, sword in hand, courage in heart, as we go on this epic raid. Tonight, we take back what is ours. Tonight, we show them our strength! Tonight," he clutched his raised hand in a fist, "we fight!"

"Yeah!!"Both Reno and Zack cheered. "All right!!"

"Oh god..." Angeal placed his palm over his face as he hung his head. "Not again..."

**

"Good. Come to the Shinra building at five o'clock. See ya."

Cloud flipped his cell phone closed and crossed "Leon S. Kennedy" off his long list of names. Reno, Zack, and, surprisingly, Genesis all had lists of their own and were working on getting the message out while Sephiroth plotted their strategy. Angeal had given all of them a speech about how it won't kill them to wait for the next shipment to come in, but his words only encouraged Sephiroth even more.

Cloud ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. It just wasn't the same. He was adamant on getting at least some of the miracle gel back and didn't care to what extremes the General would lead them to get some. And he knew it. Sephiroth saw the stern look in his eyes when he announced the raid and saw unwavering determination in him, so much so that he had made Cloud leader of the Alpha team.

Cloud looked at the next name on the list. "Link." He sighed. The elf boy was a notorious annoyance in their last raid, and though Link was a skilled swordsman, Cloud and many others have agreed that he works best alone. There was just something extremely irritating about travelling with someone who would prefer to roll instead of walk and had a tendency to stop and cut grass every time he saw a patch. Not to mention that he would freeze up with an open-mouthed grin and widened eyes on his face for about half a minute every time he found some treasure.

Cloud dialed the number next to the name. He waited until the dialing sound stopped and then there was a silence. "Hello?" he asked. All of a sudden, there was a long string of "Hut! Hite! Tsyaa!"

"Link. Link, it's Cloud. " He waited for some acknowledgement, but Cloud couldn't decipher any words coming from the other end. "Look, I know you're just as pissed off as any of us. That's why we're going to get our gel back. Meet us at the Shinra building at five o'clock, OK?"

"Hya!"

Cloud hung up and shook his head. "Damn kid." He crossed "Link" off the list and looked at the next name.


	2. Chapter 2: Power Metal Reign

**A/N: **Sorry if the military lingo isn't right! O.o Also, there are two characters in here that are somewhat hidden. Guess who?

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Chapter 2: Power Metal Reign

* * *

"You're not really going along with this, are you?" Angeal asked Genesis as they walked through the halls heading to the entrance of the Shinra building.

Genesis smirked and shook his head. "Of course not."

"Then why did you make all those phone calls?"

"I want to see him succeed…then make a fool out of himself."

Angeal looked across to Genesis questioningly. He always knew Genesis had a part of himself that wanted to put Sephiroth down, but he never heard him say it so bluntly before. "I don't think it's going to be that easy."

His smile broadened. "Well, he's all ready half way there. After he announced the raid, all he's been listening to is power metal and he's become borderline paranoid."

Angeal sighed and shook his head slightly. "I wish he'd just hire that shrink I told him about."

"Don't forget- his shampoo is also part of the Concrete Feather line…and you know how dependant he is on that stuff." Genesis added smugly.

"Yeah…" he breathed as they turned the last corner to the main entrance.

It was nearly five o'clock and most of the fighters have already assembled. The entrance was swamped with men with outfits so varying that the mismatched group looked almost comical.

Genesis broke away from Angeal after spotting the General coming out of the elevator. On his face sat a pair of rimless glasses and his hair was pulled back loosely in a ponytail, as if to distinguish his now drooped bangs from the rest of his hair. In one hand, he held a clipboard of notes, and in the other, his Masamune, a powerful symbol to inspire the soldiers' morale. Genesis stood in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder, hiding a smile. "You look…ridiculous."

Sephiroth smirked. "Hmph, so do you." With that, he walked away towards his troops, leaving Genesis standing there, somewhat shocked.

He brushed it off and regained his composure. Though he was stolen from as well, he didn't realize that the absent products in his hair were that obvious.

He followed Sephiroth towards the group and rejoined with Angeal, who was speaking to a rather animated Zack.

"Man, I am so PUMPED! I can't wait! I am so…YEAH!!" Zack jumped, turning to his right to where Cloud stood solemnly. "Right Cloud? YEAH!" His eyes and smile were wide. He looked like a little kid with too much sugar. He play-punched Cloud in the arm. "YEAH!" He tried to egg him on.

Cloud looked to his friend in the corner of his eye. Zack wouldn't let him be until he gave him at least something. "Yeah…" Cloud said in monotone.

Zack punched the air with overflowing energy. "YEAH!!"

Angeal simply grinned as he waited for Sephiroth to begin his address.

As the General stepped into the centre in front of the mob, a hush went through the building. He scanned over the crowd and everyone focused onto him…except Zack, who had his back turned to the front, hands on Cloud's forearms, trying to get him to jump with him.

Sephiroth cleared his throat, getting Zack's attention, before starting.

"Thank you for coming. You all know why you're here so I'll keep this short. Our main enemy is called 'Honey'. Their headquarters are in Ouran Academy, located in the same world we raided the last time we called you here. You will arrive in the morning and because the Acedemy will be filled with civilians, keep low. Our main target is to recover as much of the Products as possible. Alternatively, gather any and all information about its whereabouts and our enemy.

"If any of you are close to enemy Honey, detain and retrieve." He lowered his voice. "I want to deal with him myself." His narrowed eyes were shifted to the side, apparently staring at nothing. There was a pause before he continued, "You have all been split into small groups. Alpha Team will locate and infiltrate their HQ with backup from Bravo Team. Charlie and Delta will…"

Zack leaned back to look past Cloud as Sephiroth continued a rather dry explanation of the strategy. Whatever happened to the "Ra, ra, defeat the evil doers!" kind of speeches? He examined the people around him. A few bodies down, he spotted Reno and Rude. "Psst," he whispered. "Hey, Rude."

Rude turned slightly towards Zack.

"Why are you here? You don't even have hair!"

Reno, beside him, caught wind of the whispering and leaned back to say, "It's for his dolls."

Rude glared at him through his dark sunglasses but Reno paid no attention to him as he grinned and pretended to listen to Sephiroth.

Zack continued to check out his fellow fighters and noticed a man with long silver hair with shades of lavender…at least Zack assumed he was a man. A lot of his torso was exposed, with only his shoulders, arms, and legs covered. The longer Zack tried to figure out what he was, the more he had to hold back the urge to laugh.

The man noticed Zack looking at him and shifted on his feet, unnerved and annoyed.

When Zack noticed that he was wearing what looked to be a loincloth, he couldn't help it anymore and began laughing rather loudly.

Angeal quickly nudged him a bit roughly as Sephiroth cleared his throat, staring at Zack. Zack continued to laugh, holding his stomach. Angeal grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him to stand upright. "Zack, behave yourself!"

Zack tried to stifle the laugh and partially succeeded, quieting the laughs down to mere broken up chuckles.

"I have chosen each and every one of you myself, "Sephiroth began as he finished explaining his strategy. His tone of voice had changed, no longer dreary and professional, but inspired and full of heart.

"Do not fail me. Remember as you step into their world what they have done, what they have taken." He marched in front of the troops as he spoke. "The beauty of this land, the pride of this world- gone. Because of them, those dirty thieves.

"Now, go. Scour their world and unleash the power within your soul. Crush steel into their bodies. Strike swiftly and make them know, make them never forget," he paused, staring into the eyes of all the men in the first row, "We are not to be taken lightly."

Some of the men cheered while the others stood tall and proud, gripping their weapons, ready to fight.

Sephiroth swung the Masamune in the air in front of him, raising it in the air and bringing it down in one powerful motion. "Go."

The entrance exploded in cheers and echoed throughout the Shinra building as the soldiers flooded out of the doors into the city of Midgar. Sephiroth stood proudly, watching as his plans begin to take fruition. As the warriors emptied the building, the only ones who remained in the entrance were the General himself, and Genesis.

"You know," Genesis began as he walked towards his friend. "That was pretty awful."

Sephiroth turned around and started back towards his office. "You're just jealous."

Genesis followed him. "Of what? Sounding like a bad power metal song?"

"At least I don't take 90% of everything I say straight from an ancient, incomplete poem. I'm surprised you're talking to me right now like a normal person."

Genesis scoffed. "At least I don't look like a hippie grandmother. Seriously, get a haircut."

"Again," Sephiroth turned around to face him, "Jealous. You only wish you could have long hair and fight with a sword without giving yourself a hackjob."

Genesis growled. "OH YEAH?! AT LEAST I DON'T..."

**

After travelling for a few minutes, the mob quieted down and a chorus of mutters began.

"Hey, wait, where are we going?"  
"I still say that dude's a chick."  
"He said something about teams, didn't he?"  
"Maybe I should have stayed in bed this morning…"  
"For the love of…I'm not going to put on any pants!"

Angeal ran out in front of the mob, jumping up on a nearby bench to get attention. "OK, everybody! Well, I guess he got a little ahead of himself during that speech, so let's backtrack a bit." He motioned to the empty space beside him. "Team leaders, step forward and call up your team in turn." He scanned the mob to find Cloud and when he did, he nodded to him. "Alpha," he said, as Cloud stepped forward and Angeal stepped down.

Cloud took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read it out in an authoritative voice, almost trying to imitate Sephiroth's. "Alpha team: Leon Kennedy, Tidus..." he hesitated a bit and with a slight sigh, he called out his final team member, "Link. Move out."

The Alpha team followed Cloud as he led them out of Midgar. Zack took his position and called out his team. "Bravo team! Huh? What kind of name is that? No…hrm…AWESOME TEAM! Yeah!" He grinned and in the corner of his eye, he saw his mentor shake his head. "Awesome team! Irvine Kinneas, Zelos Wilder, and…" Zack flipped the paper over but it was blank. He scratched his head then shrugged. "Ah well…All right!" He brought a clenched fist in front of him in a mock flex. "I guess we were too awesome to get bogged down with non-awesome people! All right! Let's go!"

"Zack," Angeal said, stopping Zack from taking more than two steps.

Zack spun around. "YEAH!?" he exclaimed with too much enthusiasm, brought over from a few seconds ago. If he had a tail, it surely would had been wagging wildly.

Angeal gave a slight laugh. "You're the leader of a team now. Don't get too distracted, OK?"

Zack waved him off. "Don't worry about it. I've got it all under control." He saw Irvine and Zelos emerge from the crowd and nodded to them. "All right! Let's go!" He turned to Angeal. "Later!"

As the Bravo team made their way in the same direction as the Alpha team, Reno walked slowly towards the front, sly and confident. With his Electro-Mag Rod lazily tapping on his shoulder, he looked to the fighters and smirked. To be a leader in such an operation. What a feeling.


	3. Chapter 3: New Brothers

Chapter 3: New Brothers

* * *

"Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth rolled his eyes at the sound of a voice that had cut into a delicate guitar solo. He pulled his legs off his desk and sat upright, using the computer mouse to click "Pause" on the media player. He reached over to the phone and pressed the speaker button.

Sitting back in his leather office chair, arms crossed, he asked with a tinge of hostility in his voice, "What is it, Lazard?"

"Sephiroth!" Lazard repeated, almost frantically. "I need you to go on an emergency, top priority mission!"

"I've all ready-"

Lazard cut him off. "I need a Vanilla Bean Cappuccino! Extra whip cream, skim milk, and chocolate sprink-"

Sephiroth quickly leaned forward and slammed his fist on his desk. "I'm not your damn coffee boy!" He sighed and rested his chin in his left palm, elbows on the desk. "Besides, I've got more important things to deal with now."

"What?! What could possibly be more important than overpriced coffee!?"

Sephiroth contemplated answering but just shook his head and pressed another button on the phone, hanging up on the director.

**

Tidus inhaled deeply and exhaled with an audible "Ahh…" as he walked with his team out of Midgar. The sun was setting, casting a warm orange glow over the land. It was so serene as the fighters made their way across the large open field to the other universe. He leaned his head back on his palms, one over the other, as he spoke. "This takes me back. It's been a while, eh, Cloud?" he said to the leader in front of him, but his optimism was only returned with a mere grunt of an acknowledgment.

Tidus brushed it off. He never understood Cloud, but knew that he was a good guy, deep down. How he acted now, though, confused Tidus. How could he be stoic in a time like this? The city lights of Midgar were behind them and slowly shrinking from view. The flood of warriors going off in the same direction magnified the spirit of brotherhood that Tidus and many others felt. And to be in front of the charge, leading the way? Incredible.

"So where exactly is the portal again?"

Cloud motioned slightly to the left, further past the small town of Kalm. "Over there, up on those cliffs."

"Hmm…" Tidus mumbled with a mix of slight annoyance of having to walk such a distance and of having to walk it with such mute characters. He turned his attention to the other members of the team. He tilted his head towards the man walking next to Cloud. He wore a brown leather coat with dark clothes underneath, littered with several holsters carrying various ammo and guns. "Leon, huh? Lemme guess...cop?"

Leon turned his head to look over his shoulder at him. "For a day."

"So…washed up cop?"

Leon returned his focus to the path ahead, following Cloud, who walked a few steps ahead of him. "Should I tell you, or would you rather stop and play 'Never Have I Ever'?"

Cloud, Link, and Tidus all looked to Leon with the same question in their heads- "…what?" The sound of flattening grass could be heard underfoot as the Alpha team fell into an awkward silence.

_Ohhh_, Tidus thought after a while, _so he's supposed to be the badass where he's from. Talk about cheesy._

Tidus then looked to Link. The green-clad, elfish non-elf boy of the Triforce. Everybody knew of him, but there were few that really knew him personally. Some say that there wasn't anything else to him besides his quirks and habits, while others say that he's just a normal boy with a sword. Either way, almost everyone had already formed an idea of him.

"Hey," Tidus began a bit unsteadily, not sure of how he would react. His reputation pinned him as a bit of a spaz, but as he walked beside Tidus, he seemed quite calm. "You look a lot older than I thought you'd be."

Cloud turned his head a bit to listen in on the conversation. He had worked briefly with Link during the last raid and he did notice the change in appearance but didn't say anything about it. The last time he saw Link, it was less than a year ago so his aging could only be a slight factor. It was more than just age.

No longer was he the young boy with the bright eyes and overly eager battle stance. He now held a proud, strong air around him with steely eyes that locked onto his enemy without fear. No doubt, he was different. Yet, he still had the same humility and honor worthy of the Legendary Hero he always had.

"Well, nice to meet you," Tidus said, stopping and extending his hand out to the young man beside him, "I'm Tidus".

Link stopped, turned to him, looked him straight in the eyes, then shook his gloved hand. "Link."

Cloud and Leon both turned around at the sound of Link's voice, surprise playing on their faces.

**

Genesis sat on his bed, leaning over at the side, and pulling out the drawers in his nightstand. He muttered profanities under his breath when he realized that he couldn't find what he was looking for. First his hair products, and now this?! He growled in frustration as he stood up and looked around his bedroom to where his missing item could have gone. Nothing seemed to be out of place; everything was just as neat as he had left it.

He stepped quickly to his closet and flung the doors open. It was a desperate search but he felt incomplete without it; he felt like a large part of him had suddenly been hacked off without his knowledge.

After rummaging through his entire closet, he slammed the doors closed, and swore. He turned around to survey his room again, leaning with his back on the closet. He tried to think of the last place it had been but couldn't remember. It had always been by his side but not now. Did he set it down somewhere? Did it fall out of his hand somehow? _Impossible,_ yet where was it now?

He looked around his room, trying to visualize where it might have been. Then suddenly, there was a sound coming from the living room. There was a beep, then a familiar voice. He froze, wide-eyed, and turned his head slowly towards his bedroom door, listening to the voice closely.

"My friend…" the voice started, slow, low, and mocking. Genesis recognized it immediately as Sephiroth's.

" …your desire…"

He stalked to the door and slowly pushed it open as Sephiroth continued.

"…is the bringer of life…"

Genesis, fists clenched, walked into the living room to where the phone sat innocently on a table.

"…the_ gift_ of the goddess." There was a slight laugh crossed with a scoff. Genesis hovered over the phone, auburn hair draped his eyes, keeping the heat of anger in.

"Even if the morrow is barren of promises…"

He reached for the receiver but held back as Sephiroth continued.

"…Nothing shall forestall my return."

He glared at the phone. If Sephiroth thought he could toy with him, Genesis would prove him wrong.

"My friend…"

He growled, turned around and began walking to the door of his apartment. There was a pause and the room fell silent. Genesis's frustration mounted and he burst out of the door and out into the halls of the Shinra building as Sephiroth ended with,

"…the fates are cruel…"

**

"Following the guy with the sword again. Some things never change," Irvine said with a sigh.

Zack stopped mid-way through a long stretch and peered over his shoulder at his teammate, his chin resting on the top of his outstretched arm. "Hm? What do ya mean?"

"Doesn't matter if it's a chipmunk with a sword, the gunner's always gotta be behind 'em." Irvine re-adjusted his black cowboy hat on his head, letting the slight breeze float over and through his hair that now refused to stay perfect in a ponytail. "And the leader's always gotta be the one that looks like he's about to snap."

Zack turned around to face Irvine, keeping pace as he walked backwards. He pointed to his own face, his exaggerated wide eyes filled with childlike innocence. "_I_ look like I'm about to snap?"

"No, not you," Irvine pointed his shotgun to the Alpha team ahead of them, almost as if to take a shot. "That blond kid over there. Looking at him, you'd think someone ripped a lung out of him rather than take his hair products away."

Zack turned back around. "Who, Cloud?" He chuckled, "Nah, he always looks like that. Says the girls love it."

Irvine twirled the gun a full circle, now actually aiming at the back of Cloud's head. "He doesn't look so tough."

"You'd be surprised," Zack mused, not at all worried about the gunman's empty threat towards his friend. "You could stab him a hundred times, shoot him in the face point blank, or hold him up with your sword clean through him, and he'll be right there in your face like a rabid ferret the next time you let your guard down. Believe me, Cloud's a lot more…persistent than you'd think. That's probably why Sephiroth chose him."

Irvine reholstered his gun. "Him too. Why does he have to be the one deciding everything?"

"You _do_ know who you're talking about, right?"

"Well, uh…" he flustered, "Well then, why isn't he here fighting with us?"

"Seph won't fight unless he's got his whole orchestra and choir with him. You know how hard it is to get that many people and instruments in one room?"

Irvine sighed and shook his head. "Damn main characters."

Zack turned around abruptly and held out his index finger in a playfully scolding taunt. "Hey, remember who you're talking to!"

**

Genesis slowed his pace down to a jog as he heard the now common sounds coming from Sephiroth's office. The music of heavy guitars seeped through the walls and as Genesis approached Sephiroth's door, he could hear the lyrics. He sighed in frustration and annoyance, and shook his head. How many times could one person listen to "On mighty dragons' wings, we'll ride to war for our fallen brothers"?

He gripped the doorknob and clenched it. _Sephiroth is doing all of this just to mess with my head_, he thought. _Can't let him get to me_.

Genesis pushed open the large door to find Sephiroth smugly in his chair, feet crossed lazily on his desk, his right hand pinned between his head and the back of the chair, and his left hand holding a beige hardcover book with elaborately decorated boarders. _Loveless. _With his downcast eyes, he appeared to be reading it.

Genesis grimaced, angered both by being stolen from and by seeing his beloved book in the hands of another person. The music that filled the large room did not offer any comfort. He took a breath to calm himself before walking towards him. The sound of his steps was swallowed up by the pounding of the drums. Sephiroth remained still with just a hint of a smile on his face. He was well aware of his presence.

Genesis stood in front of Sephiroth's desk with his arms crossed and waited. It wasn't until the song had finished before Sephiroth closed the book and sat upright, turning his attention to his friend.

"What," Genesis asked, hiding his anger, "Are you doing?"

Sephiroth moved the computer mouse and clicked "Stop" before the next song could interrupt him. "Where is Angeal?"

Genesis breathed in and out again subtly to keep his frustration in check. "I saw him leave with the others, probably to babysit your braindead army," he said, eying the book that Sephiroth had put down on the desk.

Sephiroth followed his gaze to rest on the book. He smirked. "Fine," he said absentmindedly, his fingers gliding delicately over book's cover. He picked the book up, sat back, and thumbed through the pages slowly, looking down at it with feigned interest. "Then I'll need you to do something for me."

Genesis cringed inside.

**

After about two hours of walking and a long hike up the cliffs, the Alpha team had finally reached the portal. The sun had gone down some time ago and the night air was cool and crisp. The Bravo team was right behind them, and so were the others. Now was the time to step across the boundaries of this world and go into the unknown.

Cloud peered over Gaia one last time. Above, the open sky revealed the stars and space that spread over an infinite number of worlds and below, the troops were moving steadily forwards across the plains. He turned his attention back to the portal. It was beautiful. A pale blue light shone from within the gaseous crystal, and around it, a mist swirled around the formation eternally. There was some debris on the ground around it. The metal wall that locked the path to the other universe was blown out and only minute pieces were left behind.

Cloud turned around to look at Tidus, Link, and Leon, then gave a firm nod. With confident steps, he walked into the blue light. One by one, the others followed suit.

* * *

**A/N**: Haha, poor Genesis. I just love to mess with him, but it was kind of hard to write from his point of view. Writing for Genesis means writing negatively about Sephiroth, and I completely failed at that. (Hate Sephiroth? *_gasp_* Blasphemy!) So, I took out all of my Seph bashing attempts (which mostly consisted of childish name calling, haha), and sort of kept it to hints. But anyway, how did you all find this chapter? ^.^


	4. Chapter 4: Every Mafia Needs A

Chapter 4: Every Mafia Needs A…

* * *

"So…" Tidus looked around. The Alpha team stood in the middle of a large circular area with the same deep blue light emanating from all directions. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made up entirely of crystal-like material. Lining the walls were countless portals leading to countless worlds, but... "Which one is Ouran?"

Cloud stepped closer to the portals and looked into one of them. The portals were similar to the one they had passed through earlier but here, they showed glimpses of the world they led to. "The Academy should be the major focus point in the Ouran world, so look for a big building with lots of school-aged kids around it."

"Right."

Cloud walked passed the portals, looking in them briefly as he did. Tidus, Link, and Leon did the same as other teams joined them in the central area.

Cloud soon came to a portal that showed a large building that was surrounded by a colourful wall. Three young children were making their way inside. It seemed like there were many people in the building. He turned back to face the centre. "Find anything?"

The room echoed with dull "No"s.

"Then let's just try this one," Cloud motioned to the portal in front of him. "Let's go."

**

"Hey you, with the giant sword!"

"Huh?" Zack turned around at the sound of high pitched voice calling out to him. Zelos and Irvine stopped to look too, but Zack waved them off to continue on behind Cloud's team. The sun was high in the sky in that world, and Zack could see a small boy running out of the forest and scurrying across the large grass field towards him. A small mouse-like creature trailed behind him.

Zack hadn't been in that world for more than a few minutes and he had already attracted some sort of attention.

"You!" the boy, who couldn't have been more than ten years old, said as he pointed at Zack. "You're the one who's been stealing all the Pokeballs!"

"Hey, whoa," Zack said, putting both his hands up, bent at the elbows, in mock arrest. He shook his head, making pieces of his black hair fall onto his face. "I'm not the one you're looking for. I didn't touch anyone's balls."

"Don't try to trick me," the boy said, touching the rim of his red and white baseball cap and twisting it to the back of his head. "I'm not leaving until you fight me." He took something from his pocket and upon touching the centre button, it grew into a palm-sized ball. "It's time you've learnt a lesson."

Zack began walking away, saying, "Sorry, but I'm not into picking on little kids."

The boy growled with exaggerated energy. "Stop!" he said, throwing the ball. "Go Chimchar!"

The large flash of white light that the ball created caught Zack's attention and he turned to see what it was. The light faded away and what replaced it was a small orange monkey with a flaming tail.

"What the hell?"

The monkey, standing at only about a foot tall, looked like it was ready to lunge at him. Its large eyes focused onto his enemy, yet they were too cute to be intimidating. Zack raised his right arm slowly to reach the handle of his sword, but then thought against it. What would Angeal think if he smashed a little boy's pet monkey in the face with his oversized sword? The fact that Zack's sword was an imitation of the Buster Sword gave Angeal more fuel for would-be lectures, so everything Zack did with his sword would have to be thought out carefully.

Zack stood back and scratched his head. "Oh man…What am I supposed to do now?"

"Chimchar! Use Ember, now!" the boy called out to the monkey.

It looked behind his shoulder and nodded. It began running towards Zack, screaming his own name, "Chimchaaaa!!"

"Uh…" Zack looked around. To his right, he saw his own team walking away, out of reach, and to his left, he saw the Charlie team approaching him. A large grin flashed onto his face as his blue eyes lit up. "RENO!" He ran towards the red-headed leader. Before the Turk could react, Zack gripped him by the arm, and threw him towards the little monkey. "I CHOOSE YOU!"

"H- hey!" Reno staggered as he tried to regain his footing on the grass.

"Reno! Flamethrower attack!" Zack yelled with his arm raised and index finger extended, pointing to a vague spot in the sky.

Reno spun around. "What the hell are you talking about!?"

**

Angeal ran up the cliffs in a hurry when he realized that Cloud may not have known the exact location of Ouran. He cut ahead of the fighters and went through the portal only to catch sight of the teams already making their way steadily into the wrong world. He jogged over to the first team leader he saw and reached for his shoulder.

"Vincent!"

Vincent stopped and glanced at him. "Yes?"

"Would you please gather everyone back here? That's not the world we should be going to. I'll hold everyone up here until they get back."

Vincent gave a stern nod and turned back, entering the portal.

There was a ring. Angeal took out his PHS and glanced down at the small screen on the phone. "Genesis," it read. He flipped the phone open and before he could greet him, he was blasted with an angry, almost hysterical, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT PSYCHO BASTARD WANTS ME TO DO!?"

"Genesis, you have to calm down or I won't be able to understand you," Angeal said, turning away from the troops for a bit of privacy as he spoke into the phone. He heard a loud thud and a crash from the other end before Genesis began explaining what had happened.

"_What do you want from me?" Genesis narrowed his eyes on Sephiroth, utterly disgusted by the fact that he was now at his mercy. The book, his most prized possession, was irreplaceable, a special edition that was one of only five in the world. The other four were lost long ago and the one remaining was now in the hands of HIM. Genesis clenched his teeth as Sephiroth spun his chair away from the desk._

_He stood up and made his way leisurely to the left corner of the room. He opened the glass doors of a cabinet and pulled out a wine glass and a dark bottle of red wine. He uncorked it with ease and filled the glass halfway before putting the bottle back in the cabinet. _

_Genesis was getting more and more irritated, but Sephiroth showed no reaction or acknowledgement of his anger other than a slight chuckle. _

"_What I want, Genesis," He started as he walked slowly towards the window behind his desk. He brought the wine glass to his lips and took a sip. "What I want…" He stopped when he got to the window and his eyes flowed over downtown Midgar, over the streets, alight with cars and pedestrians going about their lives. "…Is for you to reach out to those people," he said, gesturing to the city with the glass in his left hand. "Tell them…'Your country needs you. Your Planet needs you'. Tell them, 'This is for the children.'"_

_Genesis rolled his eyes. Even with the music turned off, he was still forced to listen to the same lyrical rhetoric he so hated. "Get to the point."_

_He took another long, slow sip before continuing with a rather serious tone. "The Concrete Feather factory has been attacked."_

"_And what do you want me to do about it?"_

"_All their ingredients are gone and all their machines have been destroyed," he said slowly. "They won't be able to make their monthly quota, and left to their own devices solely, they won't be able to produce anything for another six months." He paused for another sip._

"_How much of that have you been drinking?" Genesis asked, annoyed._

_Sephiroth disregarded the question. "The two main ingredients for all their products- the liquid inside the Golden Cactuar, and the crown of the Tonberry King- are extremely hard to come by, and the processing machines are quite standard but are still big and many." There was another pause as he observed the city, this time looking higher, almost past Midgar. "I need you to gather infantry, fighters, anyone you need and lead them to collect all the ingredients Concrete Feather needs. Call on the best technicians and engineers from Shinra and around the world and bring them to the factory." _

_He took another sip and emphasized his last sentence, "Give them everything they need."_

Angeal held out his phone an arm's length away as Genesis continued to scream at him from the other end. "I DIDN'T JOIN SOLDIER TO MAKE HAIR PRODUCTS!!"

"Genesis," Angeal started calmly, "It's not a big deal. It even makes sense if you think about it. I mean, don't you want your usual products as well?"

"THAT'S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART!"

**

Cloud lead his team through the field towards the large building. As he got closer, he heard odd sounds of blasting water and roaring flames, similar to the sounds that elemental materia would make. He stopped as he reached a dirt road that lead to the building. Down the road, more children seemed to be on their way to the building. He examined it in front of him. On the front was a large circular symbol. The top half was red while the bottom was white. Spread over the symbol were three large letters "G-Y-M".

"Cloud."

Cloud turned his head to see a familiar swirl of red and black coming towards him. He took a half step back as it settled down beside him in a vague form of a man. With one swift motion, Vincent moved his arm to sweep away his cloak behind him.

"Angeal knows where Ouran is. Go back to the central area."

Cloud nodded and started to herd all the fighters back. Vincent disappeared in the same way he had appeared, only to receive an odd look from Leon Kennedy. "Must save a lot of money on airfare," he commented to no one in particular.

"You need to stop talking," Link muttered as he passed him, keeping up with Cloud as the Alpha team re-took the lead.

Tidus stood back with his mouth open, then grinned and ran up to Link, throwing an arm around him as he matched his pace. "He-ey, I think I like the new Link!"

As Cloud passed the Bravo team, he wondered where their leader was, but since it was Zack, he wasn't surprised to find him a few minutes later completely sidetracked.

"DODGE IT, RENO!" Cloud heard Zack's voice as he neared the battle scene. Cloud made his way to Zack's side, watching the odd scene of Reno battling a small monkey.

Reno crouched low to the ground, as if trying to taunt the monkey and give it a false sense of confidence. His messy, red hair hid his eyes as he moved, intentionally trying to make him appear menacing. He stuck his tongue out at the monkey as it threw itself at him. Reno rolled out of the way with smirk.

"CHAAA!" The monkey howled its frustration.

"All right! Finish it!" Zack called out to Reno.

Reno stood up and brushed off the bits of grass from his uniform, which would had been a formal suit on other people. He narrowed his eyes on the monkey and stepped lazily towards it. His Electro-Mag rod crackled with electricity as he prepared for his first and would-be final attack.

The monkey began whimpering as he realized the change in his opponent's personality. The boy panicked and called it back. The monkey transformed back into a white light and it flew back into the Pokeball in the boy's hand.

"Zack," Cloud started, but Zack was still too engaged in the battle to focus on anything else.

"I'm not done yet!" The boy yelled. "Pikachu, Go!"

"Pikaaa!" The mouse-like creature jumped off the boy's shoulder and glared at Reno. Sparks erupted from the red spots on its cheeks.

"Reno, RETURNNN!!" Zack yelled dramatically.

Reno, who was only about six feet away, turned around. "You don't have to scream, ya know? I'm right 'ere."

Zack shooed him away. "Get! Go!"

"All right, all right…" Reno shrugged as he left the battleground.

"Zack," Cloud tried again. "Stop screwing around. We need to-"

Zack grabbed Cloud by the arm with one hand and with the other, he pushed him towards the yellow creature. "CLOUD, GO!"

"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!"

"PIKA-CHUUUU!!"

Cloud stumbled forward and before he could steady himself, the creature sent a large shock directly onto Cloud.

Cloud simply stood up and looked at the creature curiously. The shock felt like next to nothing compared to much stronger Bolt attacks he had endured throughout his life of battle. He looked at the boy then turned around, not interested in mindless battles. "Zack," he started again.

The yellow creature stopped its attack as it realized that it had no affect on Cloud. It shook its head, too stubborn to believe it, and sent another large wave of electricity at him.

Zack started laughing when he saw what the electricity was doing to Cloud's hair. He pointed to his friend's head. "Cloud, hahahaha, oh man. I think we found a replacement for your gel."

Cloud looked up but could only see bits of his hair. He raised his head to touch the top of his hair and felt pieces of it standing up.

"Zack," he said again as he walked away from the battle. "We need to go. _Now_."

**

_Sephiroth fell silent. He moved his glass in his left hand idly so that the deep red liquid swirled slightly, smoothly around inside._

_Genesis didn't say anything, knowing that if he did, he would lose control of his anger. He could only fixate on Loveless, the book that now hung so disrespectfully from HIS hand. He wanted to scream at him, hold him by his throat and demand he give it back, and bring his blade through his heart if he refused. Genesis looked down at his arm and realized that his malicious thoughts had triggered the Fire materia in his armor and it now glowed a sickly green. He shook his arm slightly to silence it. _

_Genesis shot one last glance at the book, then turned to rip himself away from it._

"_One more thing," Sephiroth said as he heard Genesis step towards the door. _

_Genesis stopped and turned around again, only to see Sephiroth raise his glass slowly upwards, as if about to toast the moon. _

_His words were again infused with the same overly extravagant air, the same tone that disgusted Genesis so much. "I want you and all the others… to know me …henceforth as…" he paused, staring out at the sky. With a slight smirk that only the sky could see, he said with a breath, "Godfather". _

Angeal held his hand over his mouth, trying to muffle the sound of his laughter to not enrage his friend further.

Genesis sighed in frustration.

"Look," Angeal said, settling down his chuckles, "we've all gone through his craziness before. Remember 'Lord Sephiroth' and 'The Reunion'? Just go along with it. It'll be over in a few days."

"THAT WASN'T OVER IN A FEW DAYS!"

In the corner of his eye, Angeal spotted Cloud and the others emerging from the Pokemon world, so he quickly steered the conversation to an end. "Genesis, just relax. It'll be all right. Just go through with it…I need to go now."

"WAIT!"

"Bye." Angeal hung up and put the phone back into his pocket as he made his way towards Cloud. Ignoring the ringing coming from his pocket, Angeal greeted Cloud. "Sorry, I forgot to mention it earlier," he said, explaining the situation. Cloud shook his head slightly to say that he didn't need to apologize for Sephiroth's carelessness. Angeal continued on as the rest of the first three teams returned to the central area.

"Ouran is the fifty-ninth portal from the door, over there," he said, pointing to it. "I'll be there with all of you if you need any help. Just remember," he pointed to his ear, where a small earbud and microphone sat, "I'm connected, just like all of you. If you have a question, just ask."

Cloud nodded. "Thanks." He looked to all the fighters in the large, now crowded, crystal room. "All right. Let's go, for real this time!"

"YEAHH!!!" Zack cheered happily beside him.

Cloud glanced at him then rubbed his temples with the thumb and index finger of his right hand. Even though he was younger than him, he just knew he'd have to keep an eye on his friend.


	5. Chapter 5: Stylin'

Chapter 5: Stylin'

* * *

Cloud held a hand up to shield his eyes from the blinding glare of the sun. The contrast from the dim light of the crystal portals to the bright morning sky of the Ouran world was harsh, and the groans of the troops coming behind the Alpha leader confirmed that none were too pleased by the sudden blast of light.

At the sound of a large bell that gonged in the distance, Cloud looked up, forcing his eyes to adjust quicker. All he saw was concrete. He turned around to examine the surroundings. All around the portal was a large concrete wall, maybe twenty feet high, and only giving the portal about four feet of leeway around. It was already crowded with the Alpha and Bravo team crossed over.

Cloud walked forward and knocked on the wall. It was strong and thick.

He took two steps back and held out his right hand to cast a level three Ice spell on it. The concrete was chilled and a large dent was made in the centre. Chips of concrete fell off of it yet it was still standing. Obviously, it was stronger than it looked.

"Hm…" Cloud mused, a bit irked by a mere wall being able to withstand his power. It wasn't just an ordinary wall. More fighters crossed over and space was quickly running out. _No matter_.

"Watch out," Cloud muttered and the fighters behind him braced themselves. The materia in his armlet glowed green as he once again raised his hand to the wall, this time unleashing a powerful Ultima spell.

The spell blew out a large hole clean through as the wall erupted in pieces of concrete, metal, and brick. Cloud stepped through the dust, running his hand along the newly made cross section. It took about ten steps until Cloud reached the outside of the wall. _Impressive_.

He examined the area outside as the troops followed behind him. They were in a forest or park, somewhere with lush grass and enough cherry blossom trees to hide the portal from view from the outside.

Cloud led the troops out of the forest into the wider world. In front of him was a city-like school with a wall running along the outside. Several large buildings sat around the main building. Manicured grass patches, and elaborate fountains and statues decorated the numerous pathways. There was no one in sight.

"Ha, whoa! This is a school?" Tidus exclaimed as his eyes scanned across the academy.

Cloud turned around as the last of the fighters gathered around him. "All right everyone. This is it," he started, getting their attention. "You all remember your positions," he said, more as a command than a question of affirmation. "Remember, stay low, stay quiet. Get as much of the products and information as possible. Gunners," he said, looking to Leon, Irvine, and Vincent as examples, "take out any security cameras you come across."

"If it is not absolutely necessary," Angeal said as the fighters turned around to face him, "Do not engage in battle."

Cloud nodded to him before continuing. "Try to stay away from other teams to not draw any unwanted attention to yourselves. Bravo Team, wai-"

"_Awesome_ Team!" Zack happily interrupted him.

Cloud turned his head slowly to the right where Zack stood, arms crossed, with a smug grin plastered on his face.

"_Bravo_ Team," he repeated, turning back to the troops and ignoring the "kill joy" remark that came from his friend. "Wait five minutes, then follow behind us. Info teams separate and go in from the side doors. Interior and exterior scouts move out last. Good luck."

"Sir!" a wave of voices answered.

**

"Hurry, Saki! We're already late!" A girl called out to her friend down the large hall.

The brunette ran towards her friends, her yellow dress floating along behind her. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" Her footsteps clicked on the clean marble floor, echoing throughout the empty hallways.

As she crossed the main entrance, a quiet screech was heard from the main doors.

"Hurry!" Another girl called out to Saki.

Saki quickened her steps, alarmed at the threat of being discovered by someone else. When she reached her friends, she doubled over, catching her breath. "Thanks," she huffed, "for waiting."

"Shhh!" a black-haired girl hushed her, pulling her around the corner with the other three girls. "Someone's coming."

The girl peeked cautiously from behind the corner as a blonde in blue stepped quietly into the building. His strong, bare arms were the first thing the girl noticed. Then, his lean figure, his (rare) blond hair, his perfect jaw line, the large sword that hung on his back, then…

Her hand flew to her mouth to silence a squeal that wanted so desperately to escape as the blonde turned his head slowly in her direction. She only caught a glimpse of them, those ice cold, blue eyes with an unearthly glow, when she quickly pulled away from the corner, standing with her back straight against the wall.

Her cheeks turned pink as she tried, with obvious difficulty, not to make a sound. Her friends looked to her with a bit of concern but her eyes said it all- Extremely. Hot. Guy. SQUEE!

The girls stayed silent. They didn't dare to move, didn't dare to speak. They even tried not to breathe. And they waited.

The black-haired girl closed her eyes, trying to visualize the man with the glowing blue eyes again, as she regulated her breath and tried to calm down.

The echoes of several footsteps continued…away from the girls. The clicks turned into faint thuds as the footfalls began up the carpeted stairs.

Still, the girls were frozen.

Eventually, they began to question the black-haired girl, hurtling question after question in a hush. The black-haired girl closed her eyes and pulled her chin to her chest, fists trying to hide her mouth and nose- A silent squee. No words came from her. How could she have described such…

There was another screech coming from down the hall as the handle to the large main door was again turned.

The girls clammed up with sharp inhales.

More footsteps were heard, but this time, they were accompanied by uninhibited voices.

"Ahh, he's probably just angry because he's not spiky anymore."

The girl gathered together to sneak peeks at whoever had come in. The black-haired girl once again peered carefully over the corner, fearfully gripping the edge of the wall, and once again, she saw a man in similar garb with a similar weapon and…

He turned his head towards her.

Those eyes again, those glowing blue eyes. Yet this time, they were a deeper hue. The girl was entranced by those eyes and she stared into them from a distance for what felt like an eternity. Then, they moved. He smiled. And she was floored.

"Who are they?" The girls whispered.  
"You think they're new Hosts?"  
"They've gotta be!"  
"Yeah! A bunch of cute guys together in cosplay? They gotta be new Hosts!"

"Oh, wow! I gotta meet them!" The brunette squealed and took off towards them.

"Wait, Saki!"

**

"Team Awesome to Team Blondie. Come in, Blondies!" It was Zack on the communication system. Cloud ignored him and so did his teammates as they carefully stepped down the hall, examining doors, signs, and absorbing any information about the academy they could. "Hey, Blondies, hey! Listen!" Zack went on with a laugh in his voice when he didn't get a reply. "Listen! Hey!" He went on like that for about a minute.

"Whoever that is, shut the hell up!" a voice finally snapped. "You're more annoying than that damn fairy!" After some thought, Cloud recognized the voice as belonging to Dante, a former team member. He was a bit surprised that it took him that long to react.

Link furrowed his brows and clenched his teeth, as a low, almost wolf-like growl began deep in his chest. His eyes glowed hot with anger as he glared into the floor and balled his hands into fists.

Tidus looked over his shoulder to Link and just realized that he was without the fairy that had always accompanied him, according to his reputation. Tidus didn't know what the story was behind that, but knew when someone wasn't happy. He turned around and placed a hand on Link's shoulder, giving him a gentle smile.

Immediately after the transmission, a rather effeminate voice shot back with, "I'll have you know that I greatly resent such a derogatory term!"

After some silence, Dante replied dryly, "I wasn't talking about you, Kuja."

Link suddenly stopped growling when the touch on his shoulder surprised him. He looked up to see Tidus, his teammate, his brother. He turned his glance down, his thick golden hair shading his eyes from view. They were right. He did prefer to work alone. He hated being comforted. He hated people seeing the weak side of him that he tried so hard to bury. He hated that vulnerable little boy that everyone saw him as.

Cloud looked behind him to Link. His eyes glistened slightly with concern, yet his face was frozen in an indifferent, professional expression- a perfect impression of Sephiroth. "What is it, Zack?" he muttered into the microphone as he turned to face ahead again.

"You gotta come over here for a sec. There's a group of girls here and, uh," Zack laughed as he trailed off. "Oh? You like my sword, huh?"

In the background, the voices of his teammates could be heard, along with the coos and giggles of schoolgirls.

"Oh, what a smile! I've been searching for that smile all my life. Maybe it's…destiny?"  
"Yeah, where I'm from, they call me 'The Chosen One'."

Maybe putting Zack, Irvine, and Zelos in one team wasn't a good idea.

"Um…why are you holding your ear like that?" a quiet female voice asked.

"Huh?" Zack could be heard clearly as he flustered. "Oh, sh-" And there was silence on the waves again.

Cloud frowned slightly at his friend's lack of formality and seriousness. "Zack, stop messing around. Keep focused."

"No, no," Zack came back on again. "You don't understand. These girls know where that Honey guy is."

"So, where is he?"

"Uh…so, where is he?" Zack repeated to the group of girls.

"Honey-senpai is usually in the Host Club room," one of the girls chirped.  
"But he's in class right now!" another girl added.

Zack suddenly became serious and reverted back into the SOLDIER he trained to be. "Do you know which class?"

"Third-year math!"  
"Room 310!"

"Reno, Vincent," Cloud ordered.

"I'm on it," Reno replied.  
"Right," Vincent's voice came through in a hush.

"Zack, ask them where the Club room is."

Zack asked and relayed the message to Cloud. "Top floor of the south building, at the end of the north hall, there's a room called Music Room #3".

"Good work, Zack. Now, meet us there. Got it?"

"Got i-" Zack was interrupted by his own laughter. "H-hey, don't touch that!" Giggles could be heard in the background.

"Zack," Cloud said, using the same tone Angeal often used when talking to Zack. There was no answer. Cloud sighed and shook his head.

**

A new day, a new list of things to be taken care of.

Sephiroth went through his usual morning routine, showering, shaving, etc. Everything was the same, except for the products. Now, he used only the second best available in Gaia- Shinra's brand. It would be a daily reminder of what he was fighting for.

He opened the door of his bathroom, letting the hot steam escape and disappear into the cooler bedroom, and he stood there, in his black boxers, admiring the clothes he had laid out on the bed.

From the other room, the ringing of a telephone could be heard, but he ignored it.

He unbuttoned the white dress shirt on the bed and picked it up. It had been ironed to perfection, crisp and clean, and it glided naturally on his bare skin as he slipped his left arm through one sleeve, then the right arm. A slight smile appeared on his face as he adjusted the shirt properly onto his body and fastened the small, almost clear, buttons.

The phone continued to ring.

He picked up the black trousers that had been folded neatly in half and stepped through it. He pulled the carefully creased pants up and mindfully tucked the smooth, light shirt into them. He took the black leather belt that sat parallel to the foot of the bed and slid it through the loops on his trousers and fastened the end to the lustrous silver metal buckle. With the belt in place, he sat at the bed's edge, picking up and putting on the black socks beside him. Bending over, he reached down to where the highly glossed leather shoes sat side by side on the white carpeted floor. One after the other, he put them on.

The person trying to reach him was persistent and would not be silenced by the machine that prompted the caller to leave a message.

Sephiroth stood again and picked up the single-breasted jacket. He consciously slipped it on, careful not to wrinkle the hidden shirt sleeves or trap any of his silver strands against his back. He fastened the top button and stood still for a moment to get the feel of his new clothes. Made of the finest wool and dyed the deepest hue of black, the suit was the only replacement for his usual attire that he deemed worthy, and he turned around to admire himself in the full length mirror on the wall with contentment.

He turned around again and ran his hand over the smooth, silver, silk tie before picking it up. He closed his eyes as he peacefully pulled it over his neck and began to tie the knot.

The ringing would not cease.

He opened his eyes as he pushed the finished knot gently up to the centre of his collar. A smile.

The phone in the other room finally fell silent and Sephiroth stepped to his bedroom door. As he neared it, the cell phone that sat on the dresser by the door came alive with the ring of a deep bell and a low orchestra. _Those Chosen by the Planet._

He flipped it open and brought it to his ear.

"Yes?" He answered. "No, I will not promise such a thing," he spoke slowly as his eyes floated over the items on the dresser. "The incident with your father…" a soft laugh came from him. "No, of course not." His right hand took hold of something on the dresser and he looked down to see what it was. "By the way…Rufus…have you…tried the coffee?" He placed the dark sunglasses on his face and his lips twitched into a smirk as he made his way out of his apartment, into the heart of the Shinra building.


	6. Chapter 6: When Meteor Struck

**A/N:** Holy Jenova! 5000 words in one chapter! That's a new record for me.

*Chibi Genesis waves frantically in the background*

*facepalm* Oh right...well, Genesis sure is making a lot more appearances in this story than I first thought he would. In the original plot outline, he wasn't even in the story, haha. (Granted that the Bishi Mafia was intended to be a One Shot.) I guess he keeps coming back because it's so easy to torture him, but again, it's a bit hard to write from his POV. What's harder is writing from his fans' POV…especially when I'm not a fan. But, back to him…I do have a potential side-plot of him trying to get back at Sephiroth but I'm not sure if that might take away from the main plot. Hrmmm…what do you guys think? More Genesis?

* * *

Chapter 6: When Meteor Struck

* * *

Genesis pulled his slick red sports car to the curb and shifted the gears to park. He turned the key and the engine fell silent. Reaching over to the passenger seat, he picked up his notebook and flipped it open. The pages were filled with addresses, line after line, and the only one that remained uncrossed was at the bottom. _47 Zolom Road_. He had been out driving around the city for hours and his patience was wearing thin. He looked up through the passenger window to see the near-rusted iron number 47 on a small, quiet bookstore. _This is insane…_

He got out of the car and pushed open the door to the store, making the small bell above it chime. The rather dim store was empty, filled only with shelves upon shelves of old books and their musty odor.

To his right, the storekeeper snapped to attention at the sound of the bell, startled that the bookstore actually had a visitor that day. She closed the laptop on the counter and stood up to greet the customer. "Good mor-" she stopped and her eyes lit up when she realized that it was _the _Genesis Rhapsodos. Her lungs constricted and her heart raced. All those years of dreaming that Genesis would come into her modest little bookstore and sweep her away to some faraway place, whispering sweet words of poetry into her ear…after all of that, here he was, standing right in front of her.

"I'm looking for a book," Genesis stated bluntly.

The storekeeper was frozen with her hands clutched to her chest and her eyes transfixed by Genesis, _the _Genesis, _the God of Loveless _Genesis. Right there, _here_. So close. And his gentle voice called out to her in her pastel pink daydream and popped the imaginary bubbles that floated around him.

"Excuse me."

She mentally slapped herself and tried her best to keep up a professional front. "Oh, yes, sorry. Good morning. How many I help you?" She didn't blink, certain that if she did, he would disappear back into the recesses of her mind. If he was a figment of her imagination, she wanted to enjoy it as long as she could.

"I'm looking for a book," he repeated with a hint of annoyance.

She nodded. "Sure, I can look it up for you. What is the title?"

Despite having to repeat the process time and time again just in the past four hours, Genesis still hesitated to speak the title. "Loveless."

The shopkeeper perked up but stayed silent, still staring at him.

"Any edition prior to 1871."

The shopkeeper was confused but didn't dare to question him. The frustrated look on his face that she wasn't used to seeing only reinforced her decision to stay quiet. "I'll look it up," she nodded, returning to her laptop.

After a moment, she stood up again and said, "I'm sorry, but all our copies of Loveless have just recently been ordered. We're out of stock."

"What?" he breathed in disbelief. How could every bookstore in all of Midgar be out of Loveless? He rubbed his temples with one hand and minded his breathing again as he felt his frustration take over him. He couldn't lose his cool in public, but he couldn't just walk away either. "Who?" he asked, looking back at the young woman. "Who is the one who ordered them all?"

"I-I'm sorry," she flustered, "but it's company policy that I…I can't say."

Genesis could tell she was a fan. It was too obvious. Though he hated to toy with his fans like Sephiroth often did, he wanted to know.

He leaned on the counter looked into the woman's eyes as he slid his hand slowly closer to hers. A subtle poster-trained smile appeared on his face.

He was so close and coming closer. Her heart raced faster and her cheeks became pink and hot. Her inner fangirl was screaming "Take me away from this dreary place!" but she could only stare at him.

"You can tell me," he said softly as he clutched her hand in his.

She was near to tears and Genesis seized the opportunity to touch her cheek. His touch made her lips quiver. Her inner fangirl passed out. A tear dropped from her eye and Genesis gently wiped it away with his thumb. "Who is it?" he whispered. A false expression of concern played on his face.

"Someone," her voice managed to escape. "Someone named…"

"You can tell me," he repeated quietly.

"Someone named…Godfather."

Genesis righted himself up abruptly, clutching his head with his right hand, hiding his anger. It took everything in him to stop him from a pure meltdown of rage.

**

Sephiroth sat back in the large leather chair. It was a bit bigger than his usual chair and it didn't quite suit him to his likely very much, but it was the big chair in the big office, and he didn't mind that one bit. With his arms resting on the arm rests, he looked at the circular metal desk that surrounded him. Two computers sat side by side on either end of the desk, and in between, manila files were scattered about. Around the desk were several pillars that held up the glass ceiling. The sunlight that shone down on him was a new thing…and he could get used to that.

His attention was turned to the stairs when he heard footsteps among the fluttering of feathers. One thing he would never get used to, though, was the openness of the office. How did Rufus ever stand it? No doors, no walls, just a big wide space with a desk.

The old man with mere wisps of grey hair left on his head made his way to the centre of the room in front of the desk. A flock of chocobos followed behind him and obediently lined up to present themselves to Sephiroth. It was obvious that it wasn't their first time doing such a thing.

"Good morning, Mr. Sephiroth, sir," the old man bowed his head.

Sephiroth eyed the old man, then the chocobos. There were many of them and they almost filled the entire room. There were all sorts of different chocobos, ranging in colour, size, and age.

"What is this?" He asked.

The old man was taken aback by his question as he straightened himself back up. "Well, uh," he stammered, "you see, sir, uh…these fine creatures are, uh…"

Sephiroth leaned forward, folding his arms on top of the metal desk and stared into the old man's eyes. "I asked you to bring me a Thunderhorse."

Beads of sweat threatened to drip from the old man's forehead.

Sephiroth sat back again. "I asked you to bring me a noble steed. And what do you bring me? Tell me."

The old man flustered and couldn't find words worthy enough to present to Sephiroth.

"You bring me these lowly beasts, these children's pets. Tell me, am I child to you?"

The old man bowed his head again. "No, sir, I'm sorry sir. I have displeased you, sir. It's just that…" he looked up at him and slowly brought his head up again. "We…don't actually _know_ what a Thunderhorse is or where it might be."

"Did you not even look at the image I sent you?" Actually, Sephiroth was referring to the cover art of one of his power metal albums.

"Yes, sir, we did."

"And still, you bring me…" his left hand lazily pointed to a random chocobo. "This," he said when his finger picked a spot to stay. A "wark" came from the chocobo in that direction.

"What I need," he continued, "Is a noble steed, a creature of power. It needs strength, speed, and grace. It needs to be able to make enemies quiver in fear and fall to their knees at the sight of it alone. Tell me, what do these birds possess?"

The old man blinked, dumbfounded. The chocobo behind him tilted its head and gave an innocent "kweh?"

"Well, you see…" the old man attempted, "chocobos have the highest amount of health than any other creature on Gaia and can withstand any attack in battle. Many of these chocobo here," he said, gesturing to his flock, "have gone into fierce battles and survived. And our gold chocobos can carry you anywhere you desire."

Sephiroth remained silent, which only made the old man even more panicked.

"Please, sir, I am positive that you will find the chocobo acceptable after a bit of training with it."

Sephiroth picked up a metal ring with two keys attached to it and threw it to the old man. "Go. You have my permission to enter the other worlds. Tell the guard downstairs to send you a troop. Find me a Thunderhorse."

The old man caught the keys with both hands and bowed his head. "My deepest apologies, sir," he said before making his way down the stairs again.

As the flock of chocobos made their way behind their shepherd, Sephiroth sighed and sat back in the large leather chair. He closed his eyes momentarily to feel the warm rays of the sun shine down on him, and when he opened his eyes, all he saw were two large blue eyes and a large orange beak in front of him.

He pushed the chair back a bit with one foot and saw that a young chocobo had made its way onto the top of the desk. "Kweh?" it peeped, closing its eyes in a sort of smile.

There was no reaction from Sephiroth.

The young chocobo flapped its yellow wings in a failed attempt to fly or glide as it hopped onto his lap. "Kweh?" it peeped again. It hopped up and managed to lick Sephiroth on the cheek. "Kweh?" It tilted its head again as it peered up happily at him.

Sephiroth looked down at it with a glare.

"Kweh?"

**

"Got a strategy, boss?" Zidane asked Reno as the Charlie team made their way through the large halls of the main building. The clicks of their steps seemed almost amplified as the echoes bounced off the polished floors.

Reno grimaced as he passed by several large windows that were almost as big as the walls themselves; the harsh morning light was still too much for his eyes and his internal body clock. As he turned his head away from the light, his deep green eyes caught sight then passed over without interest a large oil painting of a random field of flowers on the opposite wall.

"I say we just bust in there and take 'em," he said, his voice lacking in its previous held zeal.

"That's a horrible idea," Squall stated in monotone beside him. "He knows who we are, and he's not just going to leave himself open for kidnapping."

"Open or not, I'll take 'em."

"No," a deep voice said behind them. Reno looked over his shoulder to Vincent and the Delta team. "That's a horrible idea," he repeated Squall's words.

Reno sighed. "You know, even though you want to be by yourselves all the time, you emos sure do think alike."Reno felt glares on his back and on his side, but shrugged it off. "So, then, what do you suggest, O Dark Ones? That we just ask him to talk to us?"

Vincent's gaze returned to stare apathically in the direction they were going as they made a left turn. "They don't know how we look like. You and Rude look professional," he paused, remembering which Turk he was talking to, and added, "enough. Go into the classroom and present yourself as-"

"Oh!" Zidane cheerfully interrupted Vincent with a slight skip. "You could be like government agents!"

Reno looked at the diminutive monkey-boy from the corner of his eye. "We…are."

"What about us?" Kuja asked, throwing his delicate voice from the back of the line.

Reno didn't even look back to know who had spoke. "You look like you shouldn't even be allowed around innocent children," he said, turning his teammate Zidane's head straight ahead again.

Zidane skirted away from his touch, throwing his hands up to guard his hair. "Hey, watch it! I told you, I'm not a kid!" He ruffled his hair back into place with one hand. "Besides, I'm _used_ to him."

"Maybe you should make yourself more presentable if you're supposed to be professional, Reno," Squall said, bringing the focus back on the mission at hand.

Reno mumbled something but his words were incomprehensible, though Zidane swore he heard the words "tight" and "ass" come from his mouth.

Squall watched the numbers on the gold-bordered black tags that sprouted out of the walls above the doors. 308, 309, 310. He was the first to stop near the window when he saw the aforementioned classroom number. The Delta team slowed down to a stop behind him and Zidane followed Squall's example.

"We're in a school, aren't we?" Reno said lazily to the two teams, who were now no longer with him. He looked back and realized they had all stopped. Unfazed, he turned and made his way to rejoin them. "How 'bout we just pretend we're new students?"

Vincent folded his arms and closed his eyes as he leaned his back on the rose-colored wall. "Shouldn't you be in your thirties by now?" he asked calmly.

Reno scoffed in mild offense. "Shouldn't you be _dust_ by now?"

Vincent opened his eyes and blinked for a moment. "Well…" he started, unsure if he should give the true explanation of his appearance or just state the obvious in his usual cool, distant way. He did none of that as he was pressured by all the eyes on him to finish his thought quickly. "Sorry I'm beautiful."

Reno smirked and was about to say something when Squall interrupted him. "Shouldn't we go to the principal if we're supposed to be new students, not go directly to the class?"

Reno opened his mouth to continue with what he was trying to say when again, he was interrupted, this time by Zidane. "And we can't _all _be new students."

Reno threw his hands up in defeat, abandoning his former thoughts. "Well then, we'll go to the principal, I don't care. But I get first dibbs on being a student! I want a crack at this guy for messing with…" He trailed off as he ran a hand through his unkept fiery red hair before finishing with the word "perfection."

"Second," Squall claimed, "I'd like to see him for myself as well."

"Third!" Zidane chirped, raising his hand in the air.

Reno looked to Zidane curiously, then looked behind him to his tail. "That might be a problem. Can you keep that in your pants?"

Zidane scoffed. "Look who's talking."

"Hey, whatever happens in Renoland, stays in Renoland," he said smugly.

"What about them?" Squall gestured to the Delta team, again steering the conversation back to the main topic.

"We'll stay outside and provide assistance if needed," Vincent said with authority.

"But, hey, we're new students, remember? Don't we need someone to register us? Like…a father?" Reno glanced over to Vincent.

The glare in his crimson eyes said "no" for him. Still, Vincent felt the need to elaborate. "I look nothing like any of you."

Reno shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"You look nothing like each other, either."

"Yeah?" Reno waved his Electro-Mag Rod in Kuja's direction, "Well, look who's our mom."

Kuja took it as an opportunity to get closer to Vincent and clung onto his arm. He smiled as he rested his cheek on his red cloak.

Behind him, Cait Sith bounded up and hung himself over Vincent's shoulder. "What a fine looking family, we've got 'ere!"

Vincent closed his eyes and shuddered in disgust at both Kuja and Cait Sith. "Get off me…and Cait Sith, I told you, I'm not your marshmallow."

"C'mon on, lads!" Cait Sith continued, waving the Charlie team in closer. "Let's have a group hug, then, eh!"

Zidane and Reno both grinned and pulled Squall in as they surrounded the red cloaked man. Rude stood aside.

Almost in unison, Vincent and Squall muttered as they tried to free themselves, "Don't ever touch me again."

It was then that they heard the screech of a door opening and a woman's voice call out to them. "May I…" she stopped in surprise when she saw the group of strange looking men hugging each other, "…help... you?"

**

Genesis pulled his car into his parking stall in the SOLDIER garage.

He had driven around Midgar for a while after the visit to the last bookstore just to clear his mind and calm himself down. Needless to say, he was still incredibly irritated, but he was at least in control of his emotions.

He got out, closed the door, and locked the car as he walked away; his footsteps echoed throughout the parking lot.

What he decided, however, was still up in the air.

He pressed a button to call the elevator, waited a bit, then got in.

If there was any way he could free himself from Sephiroth's clutch, he'd take it. But so far, he didn't see a way out.

When the elevator doors opened, he stepped out into the main entrance of the Shinra building, only to be confronted by a blond man in a black suit. "Identification, please," he said firmly.

Genesis stared at him. The man was smaller than him but he didn't budge.

Genesis sighed and stated dully, "SOLDIER, First Class, Genesis."

"Oh," the man scratched his head and looked away in embarrassment. "Sorry, sir, but we have to screen everyone that comes in. Please, go right ahead." He stepped aside.

Genesis looked around. More men and women in suits littered the entrance, each standing an equal distance away from each other. "Why are the Turks here?" Genesis asked the blond man.

"No, sir. We are security infantry. We have new orders from the President to make Headquarters a…" he looked down and hesitated a bit before continuing. "A 'Fortified Fortress of Force'." He shifted on his feet uncomfortably and cleared his throat; the alliteration felt awkward coming from his own mouth.

Genesis raised an eyebrow. "_Rufus_ said that?"

"…A-Apparently, sir. I wasn't given the order directly, but it was passed down the ranks."

"No way that Rufus would have said that," Genesis retorted with a scoff. He took a few steps and called the elevator that led to the higher levels, muttering, "There's only one person on the Planet who would speak such sickening pseudo-poetry..."

The blond man watched him curiously as he stepped into elevator.

**

Ignoring the suited guards that stood outside each door, Genesis made his way down the halls to the Director's office. What he found when he opened the door was like something out of a horror movie…if cups were bullets and coffee was blood.

The office was filled with the overwhelming smell of coffee and coffee cups, both empty and filled, were scattered over counters, tables, and strewn over the floor. Lazard was slumped over his desk and in the corner of the room, Kunsel was busily gathering all the garbage in the waste basket under his arm.

He looked up as Genesis entered the room. "Hi," he greeted him, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Genesis recognized him as one of Zack's friends. "You're the SOLDIER who knows everything, aren't you?"

"Well, uh…" he gave a modest laugh.

"What…happened here?" Genesis asked as he stepped over the paper cups on the floor and towards Lazard. He took the cup from the director's hand and examined it. There were a few drops of light brown coffee left inside and on the outside, the green and white label that spread over the cup read, "MeteorBucks".

"Se…Se…" Lazard's voice cracked.

The SOLDIER continued tossing the cups from one of the tables into the trash. "Lazard had…a lot more caffeine than he usually does. Apparently, Sephiroth was the one who ordered the coffee and Lazard, being Lazard, couldn't stand seeing a cup of coffee go to waste. He was on his thirtieth cup when he called me in for a briefing." He gave a slight chuckle. "I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the higher-ups wound up the same way."

"Of course…" Genesis muttered, sliding Lazard's office chair away from the computer with his foot. Lazard slumped to the ground with a grunt. "I'm surrounded by idiots…" He leaned down, took hold of the computer mouse, and began clicking.

"I'm not a coffee drinker myself," Kunsel continued, "But I had a sip of the stuff and it's pretty good. Tastes kinda…off, but still, really good."

Genesis opened Lazard's list of e-mail addresses and selected all of them. As he stared at the blinking cursor on the blank page, Genesis noticed something from the corner of his eye. He looked to his left and saw Lazard's hand shakily reaching up to him.

"I can…has…cookie?" Lazard groaned weakly.

Genesis looked to his right and saw a white paper bag with the same green and white logo on it. It was ripped open and among the light and dark cookie crumbs were two still intact chocolate chip cookies. Genesis shoved Lazard's hand away and turned his attention back to the computer screen.

_Attention all SOLDIERs_, he began.

"You've got a lot of influence on your fans, don't you?" Kunsel asked casually, still cleaning off the table.

"Hm?" Genesis was only half listening as his fingers clicked on the keyboard. _…First assigned by General Sephiroth…_

"Ha, yeah. 'Cause of you, the fans are absolutely nuts about Loveless. The other day, I saw an ad online for a copy of Loveless. The seller must be pretty hardcore but the description on it was just ridiculous." He chuckled. "I don't remember all of it but I think it went something like 'Straight from Genesis himself: Two-hundred pages of five verses you'll never forget. Now you too can let the Gift of the Goddess warp your mind and consume your soul! Not recommended for people with severe allergies to Banora Whites.'"

"Probably just a fake," Genesis mumbled as he continued typing. …_This mission will be in collaboration with the Concrete Feather company…_

"Yeah, that's what I thought too, but the comments that were made on it claim that it's legit. They said something about how they could recognize the cursive 'G' on the front page anywhere. It's already going for half a million gil."

Genesis bolted up and looked at him. "What? When did you see this ad?" He asked quickly.

"Uh…" Kunsel was taken by surprise a bit but remained calm. "Yeah, I think it was…maybe yesterday."

"Do you know who the seller was?" he pressed.

Kunsel stopped to think for a moment.

"Forget it," Genesis growled, impatient, "I already know who it is anyway." He looked to the computer screen where the e-mail was left unfinished. "The bastard…" he marched out of the room. "I'll kill him…"

**

Sephiroth was leaning on the front of the large metal desk. "And put up the new banners all through the city," he said over the barrage of heavy metal guitars coming from the speakers around the room. Sephiroth left the music on a low volume at all times, claiming that it brought more life to Rufus's dull office.

"Yes, sir," the man replied and scribbled something in his notebook.

Sephiroth looked to his right where a woman with short brown hair had set up an easel and was deeply engrossed in her painting.

"How is my portrait coming along?" Sephiroth asked, hiding a smile.

The woman looked up and nodded. "I'm almost finished, Mr. Sephiroth."

"Good, good..."

"SEPHIROTH!!" Genesis yelled as he climbed up the stairs.

"Hm?" Sephiroth looked the stairs in mild amusement.

Genesis stepped quickly towards him and pointed his red rapier at him with the point stopping only an inch away from Sephiroth's nose. "Where is my book!?" he demanded the answer.

Sephiroth calmly pushed the rapier out of his face with his hand. "Leave us," he said to the man and the painter. The man nodded and left down the stairs. The woman picked up the easel and took the elevator down.

"Where IS IT!?" his eyes burned with rage.

Sephiroth simply said, "It's safe." He looked to Genesis for a reply but there was none. His hand still gripped the hilt of the rapier tightly. He didn't want to talk; he wanted to fight. "Hmph, I don't see why you're getting so upset. According to our agreement, you'll deliver me the products, and I'll give you your reward."

"We never had an agreement!" Genesis swiped the air with the rapier as he spoke.

"Oh?" Sephiroth mused, turning to slowly walk back behind the desk. "Then you won't mind," he pulled open a drawer and picked up the beige hardcover, "if _Loveless_ learnt the meaning of its title?" He swayed the book a bit in his hand. He smirked as Genesis grimaced.

The speakers continued to play their songs of warriors and victory.

He put the book down on the desk. "Genesis," he said with a tone of seriousness. "I expect you to fulfill your duty as a SOLDIER, for yourself and for your..." thought for a moment before finishing with, "brothers."

Genesis snapped at the last bit. "I am so sick of your nonsense," he said in a low voice. He lifted his rapier to point at him again. "Fight me. End this now."

Sephiroth turned his back on him and walked slowly to the window overlooking the ocean. "Genesis, you _will_ finish your mission." He lifted his left hand up and spoke in tempo with the singer of the current song. "_Fly, young robin, fly."_

Genesis froze with his face showing an expression of anger mixed with confusion. _Robin…?_

The sound of fluttering feathers suddenly could be heard in the distance and coming closer quickly. The door to the deck was beaten open and the room was filled with overwhelming tweets of "kweh, kweh, kweh". It was a horde of baby chocobos, small, round, and fluffy. And they were running straight towards Genesis. The door was repeatedly bumped open as the chocobos simply kept coming.

They swarmed around Genesis. Most began pecking at his feet, but some were able to hop up to peck his haunches. Soon, the room was filled with chirping yellow puff balls with sharp orange beaks that were all targeted at one person.

Sephiroth turned around and relished in witnessing the flock do his bidding.

Genesis swiped at the chocobos with his rapier and they flew off, but were quickly replaced by a thousand more. The chicks that were struck simply got to their feet again and continued to swarm. He swiped at them continuously and sent them flying in broods, but after a while, he realized that there was no way he could win against the flock.

Eventually, Genesis was forced down the stairs and he cursed Sephiroth as he fled.

Sephiroth smirked. Maybe the chocobos were more useful than he thought.

**

"Zack, where are you? Hurry up," Cloud said into the microphone. Having already found Music Room #3, the Alpha Team waited for the Bravo Team on a flight of stairs not too far away from it. Tidus and Leon leaned on the smooth golden rails, pitting Blitzball and Football in a friendly argument of which sport was better. Cloud kept watch at the top of the stairs and Link sat on one of the red carpeted steps nearby.

"I, uh," Zack's voice finally came through. Again, female voices accompanied those of the Bravo team. "We're a little...swamped right now."

"Dammit, Zack, you're not supposed to draw attention to yourself."

Zack laughed. "Can you really blame them? It's pretty hard for a girl to walk away from _this_ face."

"Well, you better be here _very_ soon, because we can't just sit around here like this much longer. People are going to start noticing us."

"Zack." It was Angeal's voice. "You're on a mission, remember? Whatever happened to 'I've got it all under control,' hm?"

"OK, OK," Zack sighed. "We're coming. Sorry, ladies, but a SOLDIER's gotta do his job." Squeals could be heard in the background.

"Bravo Team, get here as soon as possible," Cloud commanded. "We're going in."

The Alpha Team turned to Cloud and he nodded.

**

Cloud turned around and brought a gloved finger to his lips to tell his team not to make a sound as they neared Music Room #3. Cloud stepped silently and stopped in front of the large doors to the room. He could hear voices.

"I still don't see why they put us here. I mean, they've got all those vampires and demons, and guys with giant robots, and they put us here to guard the club room. I mean, how stupid can is that?"

"What?" A much softer voice shot back. "Are you afraid, is that it? All that training and you're still a coward." He scoffed. "Pathetic."

"Coward!? This coming from a girly boy? C'mon, I'll take you on right here, right now. I'll show you!"

A third voice rang in, this time from a bit further away. "Can't you two just SHUT UP!?"

"Oh great, you turned him Black. Are you happy now?"

"Hey, you're the one with the attitude, you damn rat!"

"Stupid cat."

* * *

**A/N**: Just another note…Sephiroth's "Noble Steed" scene was largely influenced by the song Ukkoshevonen (Thunderhorse) by the Finnish power metal band Teräsbetoni, and the cover art that he showed Choco Bill is actually the cover art of their album Myrskyntuoja (Stormbringer). Now, whether or not Godfather Sephiroth actually listens to Teräsbetoni…LMAO…wow…if you know the band or have seen any of their pictures, you'll know that they're a big walking pile of OMGWTFSRSLY? But, hey, I've already taken all of Sephiroth's dignity away by forcing power metal onto him…so, may as well…

(If any of you do go into researching this band and become a bit disturbed by it…don't worry, they're not for real. They're just one hell of a joke band, haha.)


	7. Chapter 7: In Good Hands

**A/N:** Another long chapter (at least to me) for you today. A lot more crack than usual, but uh…*shakes head and laughs* I've got no explanation. By the way…have you noticed how often bishies shower? Or how significant their showers seem to be? XD

* * *

Chapter 7: In Good Hands

* * *

Genesis slid the keycard through the lock beside the door with more force than was necessary and walked into his apartment as the metal door slid open and closed behind him. He was still clutching the hilt of his sword tightly as he stood in the small corridor. Adrenaline was still coursing through his entire body and his mind wasn't used to its SOLDIER-induced want/need for destruction to be denied. A deep, breathy growl of frustration escaped from his throat as he stalked to the living room, and with one powerful, swift motion, he lifted the red blade up across himself and threw it to the floor.

The rapier clanged in protest against the warm brown tiles and it slid, twirling, towards the corner of the room. The crimson blade only settled down when it struck the abrupt hug of the walls.

_That infuriating megalomaniac_…

He began to pace from the living room to the kitchen, and back again. His anger sought out destruction, yet he could not attain it. It needed to manifest in some form.

_Since when had Shinra become the universe's asylum? _

He growled again and slammed his fist against the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. His forearm followed his fist and fell horizontally onto the wall. Genesis pulled himself closer to the wall and rested his forehead on his arm, feeling his heart pump a useless amount of blood that would have been utilized to fuel his muscles in battle. He stayed there with his eyes closed for a long time. There, in his own world, cut off from any of the insanity from the outside. Between him and the wall was nothing but his breath, which slowed as time went on.

When he felt calm enough to continue on again, he turned around and leaned against the wall that gave him comfort, almost as if in thanks. His eyes were directed upwards but they were staring past the bare, white ceilings as Genesis began to think…_now what?_

His head rolled back and to the left against the wall and he found himself looking in the direction of the bathroom. _A shower._

He pushed himself off the wall to stand up straight. _Perhaps a shower would make things more bearable._

**

Cloud looked around him. There was no one in the halls except him and his team, and on the other side of the two large salmon pink doors were his enemies. He reached for the golden handle of the door on the right, but stopped before his fingers touched it, thinking that testing the handle to see if it was locked would give too much of a warning of their presence. He thought of using materia again, but quickly put it out of his mind; blowing the doors to bits was a little less than subtle. Damaging the door in any way would cause too much suspicion to passer-byers, and Cloud took this mission purely as a get-in-get-out type of situation.

He then looked to Leon to his right. A cop, secret agent, or whatever he was, he'd probably know how to pick locks, Cloud figured. Cloud's gaze switched back to the door when Leon looked to him questioningly. Picking the lock would mean losing a teammate; even if it only took a second to drop the picks and draw his weapon, he would still be in a vulnerable position.

"Hm…" Cloud mused, reaching behind his shoulder and bringing the large Buster sword copy in front of him. Tidus, Leon, and Link readied themselves at his cue. Cloud held the sword in one hand and continued staring at the door.

He took a step and with his right foot, he kicked it twice. The whispers on the other side ceased. Cloud kicked the door again. "Hey," he called out, his voice dull. "Got some more stuff here." Cloud glanced at his team from the corner of his eye, telling them to get ready. "Could use a hand with the door."

There was a pause, then some more whispers. Then, the handle of the left door turned slowly downward. Cloud watched it intently, and just when the door began to open and he saw the small slit of space between the doors, he rushed in. With his armored shoulder, he pushed the door open, feeling the door collide into the person in front of it, throwing him across the room. The rest of the Alpha team followed closely behind Cloud, and with weapons drawn, they instinctively found themselves opposite of their enemies.

To the left of the door was Tidus, holding the blue blade of his sword within inches of the face of an orange-haired teenager. To the right of the door, Leon pointed his handgun between the eyes of a boy with dark grey hair. Link stood between his two teammates, sword in hand, and in front of him, Cloud stood staring down at a teen with black and white hair who was sprawled out on the floor and laying on his back.

_Nothing but kids?_ Cloud examined their opponents closely. Their matching black clothing were school uniforms and they had no weapons on them. Still, enemies were enemies. In a calm, steady voice, he demanded, "Return what you stole." He brought the blade of his large sword up to the neck of the boy in front of him.

_Zack_, Cloud wondered, almost bored with the easy situation before him, _where are you?_

**

_I'mma comin'!_

Zack quickly stepped out of the way of a glomp he saw coming from a girl to his right. "Woah," he said with a laugh to Irvine and Zelos behind him. "And I thought girls in Gaia were crazy!"

Zack led the team through the halls towards Music Room #3, but as they ran through the school, the screaming horde of girls chasing after them seemed to be growing. They've tried several times to lose the shrieking mob, but it seemed like at every corner, they were jumped. The girls were everywhere and convening onto them.

"Maybe they can communicate with each other," Irvine quipped. "You know, like dolphins."

Zack looked back behind his shoulder. The girls were surprisingly fast and were able to keep up with the Bravo team, despite the fact that a lot of their energy was dedicated to screaming at a deafening high pitch.

"Never thought dolphins could be so scary," Zelos huffed.

Irvine and Zelos continued to run after Zack, who was already thinking of how to explain the situation to Cloud.

**

Reno looked over his shoulder at the teacher behind them, then quickly turned back to the centre of the extremely-awkward-hug-turned-team-huddle. He felt Squall try to struggle out of his grip, uncomfortable with the mass amount of human contact, but Reno forced him in closer. "Wonderful," he said in a hush, over-glorifying the word sarcastically.

Squall grimaced. All the touching, just from Reno and Zidane arms being him, irritated him to no end. He'd rather be tortured than be hugged by someone…especially by a group of other men…especially in public. "Some leader."

Reno looked over his shoulder again at the teacher. When she looked like she was about to say something, Reno quickly popped his head back into the circle like a turtle withdrawing its head into its shell. "It's not my fault," he sneered and nodded his head up in Cait Sith's direction. "It's 'cause of the cat."

Cait Sith raised both front paws and slapped them on Vincent's shoulder. "Hey! I'm sorry if I have only one volume!"

"Shut up!" Zidane hissed up at him.

Rude, who was standing out of the huddle, cleared his throat as if to say that despite hiding their eyes from the teacher, they were still very visible. He readjusted the knot on his black tie, stood with his right hand holding his left wrist, and simply remained aloof to the teacher's obvious curiosity that was soon turning into concern.

"Ok, Ok," Reno said, peeking over his shoulder one more time. "Ok," he said again.

Zidane stomped a foot with impatience. "What!?"

"Just, uh…" Reno looked to Vincent and smirked. "Just follow my lead."

**

There were so many of them.

Link scanned the room slowly from left to right with wide eyes, enthralled at the sight of them all, simply laid out on pedestals that dotted the large room. Elegant, antique, hand-crafted, porcelain…pots. They sparkled and shined in the light. Their blue flowery patterns were beautiful on their gleaming white background. Smooth, fragile, perfect works of art sitting on square pedestals, simply waiting to be moved, to be brought into action. They knew him. They taunted him. They called to him. And despite his initial resistance, he couldn't refuse the call.

**

"Pretty confident," Tidus remarked when the orange-haired teen jumped back into a readied position with one fist held at his waist and the other higher in front of him. Cloud was interrogating the two other students, but Tidus couldn't help but toy with the one before him.

The teen glared at Tidus, past his sharp, blue blade. "Afraid of a challenge?" he asked Tidus. "Or is it that you can't fight without a weapon?"

Tidus scoffed, amused at the teen's brashness. "I'll take you on any other day. But we're not here to prove our strength in random battles. We're here to-"

Tidus was cut off by a sudden scream of "TSYAAA!!" coming from behind him. From the corner of his eye, Tidus spotted Link run past him and right towards the closest blue and white vase on a pedestal in the middle of the room. As he neared it, he swung his sword right through the middle of the pot with a wild "HYAA!". Without hesitation, he moved onto the next vase a few steps away. " HAAAA!" He went from pot to pot, sending shards of porcelain flying every which way.

The Alpha team and the three students stared dumbfounded at the Hylian as he rampaged.

"Link!" Cloud called out to him, but his voice fell on deaf ears.

With his sword held out, Link spun in a vicious circle, absolutely destroying the pots that surrounded him, yet left the pedestals merely wobbling. When he stopped, he was facing the others by the door. His blue eyes were glazed, pupils dilated. His teeth were clenched and his lips were shaped in a snarl. His breath was quick and his chest raised and lowered deeply and visibly. Link was gone.

**

Four men, dressed in the now standard black suits, followed their leader, stepping quietly down the halls of the SOLDIER residential wing. Their footsteps gradually fell silent as the men stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall, waiting for their leader's orders.

"He's in the shower," he muttered. His youthful voice was low, with an almost bored tone.

Behind him, the four other men were much more lively.

"Oh man, I hope he's not the type who prefers to dry naturally…if you know what I mean," one of the two black-haired men whispered.

The other cocked an eyebrow at him. "Dude, why do you always have to make things so awkward?"

He chuckled a bit and shrugged. "Sorry, I can't help it."

The others joined in. "I hope he at least puts something on before comin' out."

"Yeah, the last thing I want to do is put 'Wrestled a wet, naked man and tied him up against his will' on my resume."

The men began snickering.

The leader turned around and crossed his arms. He wasn't laughing along with the others, but he wasn't all without humour. From under a mask hiding his mouth, he smirked, thinking that the men's out of place comments reminded him of someone. "Got it all out of your systems yet?" he asked them. They nodded. "Stay sharp. Don't forget- he's a First for a reason." From his breast pocket, he took out a card that read "Genesis" on it and passed it through the slot on the wall. The metal door opened with a quiet, clean swoosh.

**

The Charlie and Delta teams finally broke apart (though Vincent had a harder time trying to shake off Kuja) and Reno motioned for Rude to follow him. Obediently, he did and both of them lead the others to stand in front of the teacher. At that point, she was ready to call the police.

"Hello, miss," Reno started with an unusual amount of formality. It bordered on sarcasm coming from him but he tried to counter it with lowered brows and a sly grin. He examined her as he spoke, reformatting the feeble plan he had as vague ideas came to him bit by bit.

The teacher was young, was the first thing that came to him.

He stepped closer to her and reached for her hand. She drew back and stepped away from him, but Reno was too quick and he swiped her left hand in his. The teacher looked up at the strange red-haired man with awe as she tried to maintain her professionalism as a teacher in that prestigious school, yet something about him simply made her malleable.

"I can see why he's been trying to find you," he said softly. Reno's expression warmed as he brought her hand up his lips and placed a gentle kiss on it. No ring, he noted.

The woman blushed but kept her gaze steady on the Turk. "Who…what are you talking about? Who are you?"

Reno met her eyes and locked onto them. Then, he began telling her a story that he didn't quite know himself, putting words together that made the most sense as his mind tried to make it as epic as possible.

"Do you remember a little black-haired boy when you were little? You were maybe about…seven or eight. You were in a magnificent park, with…dogs running in the distance…children playing on the playgrounds…" his mind raced as he tried to find more words. "…Castl-yeah-castles were being built from the sand of the beach by the big, wide ocean. You were sitting on a bench just across from them, and there was a little boy with the darkest, ebony black hair that shadowed the pain and mystery of his crimson eyes." Reno closed his eyes, held a fist to his heart, and paused for dramatic effect…and also a few seconds to think about what exactly he was trying to explain.

The teacher was moved by the fact that _he_ was moved by his words, but a confused look remained on her face. "I-I don't rememb-"

"That boy saw you," he quickly interrupted her with false wonderment in his voice. "And he wanted to meet that beautiful girl with those gorgeous brown eyes," he said, touching a finger to her cheek. "But he never got a chance to meet you. He never got a chance to learn your name, hear your sweet voice, listen to the music of your laughter, or look at that precious smile and know that he was the one who caused it. Because his family took him away at that point." Reno looked down and shook his head slightly, whispering, "Why…"

He looked up again at her. "He was taken away from this peaceful town to a treacherous hell far, far away. There, he was forced to fight, forced into battle, into_ war_. His innocence was stripped from him as he was forced to see men, women, and children die by his hand for reasons not of his own. Oh, but he tried and he tried to free himself of his fate, but he knew he had to fight. He knew he had to stand and fight, for his country, for his pride and honor."

Behind him, Squall covered his face with his hand. _How long is this idiot going to go on for?_

Reno continued, now imitating Sephiroth's speech tone. "One day, he was in a fierce battle, and one of his comrades was hit by a rain of bullets and was injured severely. He raced over to him to help him. He lifted the head of his fellow brother and he asked him, 'What were you thinking putting yourself in a vulnerable position like that!?' The soldier responded, 'Of my darling wife.' The man told him, 'You idiot! You could've died!'. The soldier just shook his head, smiled, and said, 'You hold someone in your heart as well'. The man was shocked, but in truth, he was. He was always thinking of that amazing little girl at the beach all those years ago, wondering where she was and if he could meet her, just once."

Reno took the woman's hand in his again, staring into her eyes with determination. "The soldier gripped the man's hand and held it up, and promised, 'If you help me make it through this alive, I'll help you find her'. Do you know how I know that story?"

Squall still hand his face in his hand. _No, master storyteller, please tell us, because the suspense of this cliché story is breaking our hearts._

"Because _I _was that soldier."

The woman seemed to be enthralled by both Reno and the story he was so passionate about.

Reno continued, "So, true to my word, he and I went to great lengths to find you. And after so many years of hard work, here we are." He grinned, and continued on with a much more light-hearted tone. "So, do you want to meet that little boy who kept you in his heart for all these years, fought so hard just to come out alive to see you again, and searched all the corners of the world just to find you?"

The woman's eyes welled up in tears and she nodded.

Reno smirked as his planned seemed to be a success. He turned so that he was beside her. With his left hand on the small of her back, and his right hand motioning to Vincent, he said, "Well, miss, after all these years, I now present to you…the…Prince of…" Reno's mind suddenly fell blank and there was a pause.

Vincent felt awkward and uncomfortable with all the eyes on him, and again, he rushed to find words- any words. His voice escaped and formed the name, "Persia."

Reno's expression was hidden from the woman, but to all those in front of him, they could see his mouth gape and his eyes frozen in disbelief. _Of all the places…THAT'S what you come up with!? _ Reno sighed slightly and he brushed it off. _Whatever._ He stared at Vincent, who simply stood there. He nodded his head towards him, signaling him to do something quick.

Vincent remained still for a while, then stood back, and with one swift motion, he fluttered out his cloak, exposing the tight leather clothing he wore with Cerberus strapped to his leg.

At the sight of the gun, the teacher suddenly felt threatened and almost screamed. Squall quickly jumped to her, holding her back in one hand and in the other, casting Sleep. "Damn Turd" he muttered. He knelt as he lay the woman down who almost instantly drifted off. He carried her and set her down next to the wall.

"Gee, couldn't you've done that before we had to listen to all that?" Zidane quipped beside him.

Reno, ignoring the "Turd" comment from Squall, glared at Vincent. "You stupid old man!" he said, almost yelling. "You ruined everything! That wasn't easy, y'know, coming up with all that on the spot! I mean, what the hell was that damn whooshy cape thing!?" he waved his hands in the air, exaggerating the movement of the cloak.

Vincent crossed his arms and spoke steadily, "Usually, girls come running towards me when I do that."

"I was trying to get you to _flirt_ with her. FLIRT! Get it? NOT FLASH!!" Reno sighed with exaggerated heaviness, showing his frustration and disappointment. "Wow, I can see why you lost _her_."

Vincent loomed over Reno with a glare that held so much anger and hate that even Reno recognized it as a legitimate threat. Maybe he went too far this time. Reno stepped back, away from the gathering shadow of death.

Suddenly, Vincent tore away from him, turning and walking away slowly. He stopped not too far away with his back to the two teams. He placed his left hand on the large window with a clean clink of metal on glass, and placed his right hand on his face and stood there for a while.

Reno looked around at everybody and shrugged.

Vincent slowly lifted his head back and without warning, his breathy dark voice screamed out, "LUCRECIA!!!"

"H-Hey!" Reno jogged to him, suddenly forgetting that he was afraid for his own life just a moment ago, and shocked Vincent with his electro-mag rod to get him to stop. The jolt of electricity made Vincent fall to his knees. "Keep your voice down, loverboy!"

**

The girls at the head of the screaming cloud of yellow dresses and long hair extended their arms out to the Bravo team ahead of them. "We just want to talk!!" They yelled out.

The Bravo team made a sharp right turn and they raced down the hall. The room at the end of the hall had its doors wide open and inside were Cloud and the others. The girls spotted the Host Club room with its new 'members' sooner than the Bravo team and shrieked in excitement. They sped up, almost threatening to get ahead of Zelos.

Finally, the Bravo team reached the clubroom. They spun around, almost losing their footing with the sudden change of direction, and feverishly, Zack, Irvine, and Zelos tried to close the two doors. But the girls were too near and too fast.

The girls flooded in, screaming and cooing with "Oh my god! There are more of them!" and "I told you if we follow the hot guys, they'll lead us to more!"

**

Cloud turned around when the teen in front of him started to back away from him, staring at the girls at the doors with wide eyes. The other boys did the same. Cloud glanced at the door, trying to pinpoint where Zack was, but even though Zack was by the door not too far away, he couldn't find him. His eyes were filled with nothing but yellow and his ears heard nothing but high-pitched screams. He couldn't tell if they were screams of happiness or horror. Maybe it was both.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, he was hit with a heavy, dull blow to the chest, knocking the wind right out of him. He felt his cheek brush against hair that wasn't his, and arms around him, restraining his movement. He fell backwards onto the floor. He lifted his head and looked down at his chest to who or what was on him, but before his eyes settled onto the girl, he felt someone grab his left arm, then someone else on his right arm.

"Oh wow, he's so cute!" he heard a girl's voice, but he didn't know in which direction it came from. Then suddenly, everything turned dark as someone came from above him, placing their hands on his cheeks and looking down on him, her hair shadowing any light from his eyes.

"SYAAA!!!" He heard Link scream rise above the rest in the background.

**

Genesis was right. The shower did help him relax, he thought as he got dressed in his lounge clothes- a loose red t-shirt, and a pair of worn, faded jeans. As he did up his pants, he froze. He didn't know why exactly, but knew that something was wrong. He had been in too many situations to know not to ignore his instincts. His still-wet hair clung to his cheek as he moved to the door and placed his ear on it, trying to listen to anything coming from the outside. He waited and waited, but he heard nothing. Still, the uneasiness in his own home told him to stay alert.

He unlocked the bathroom door and turned the knob, pulling the door open slowly. He quickly backed away from it, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

He shook his head, wondering what he was doing. Maybe insanity was contagious. He sighed and walked out of the bathroom, examining the surroundings. Still nothing.

He made his way to the living room to retrieve his sword, thinking that if his instincts were warning him of something, at least he would be armed. Everything from the bathroom, through the halls, and past the kitchen were just as he had left it, and the more he saw that things were normal, the more comfortable he felt.

When he neared the living room, the small hairs on his forearms and on the back of his neck stood up. He stood back a bit, peering into the living room. From what he could see without entering the room, all was as it were before, including his sword, which was thrown to the far side of the room.

Cautiously, he stepped into the living room, quickly scanning one side of the room, then spinning around to take in the other side of the room. Still, no one. Still, nothing.

He turned around and walked towards his rapier. It was just when he reached down, that he heard footsteps behind him, quick and many. He panicked and grabbed his sword, but before he could get a proper grip on it, he was forced down to the ground by someone's weight on his back. He tried to throw whoever it was off, but as he was distracted, his sword was kicked out of his hand by another person.

He felt his legs and arms restrained as he struggled to free himself, and he almost did, if not for what came next.

As he tried to reclaim his limbs, he turned his head to look over his shoulder to identify his attackers, but that movement was only met with a sharp prick in his neck, followed by an overwhelmingly urge to sleep. He couldn't fight it. His body no longer responded to his fragile commands, and his eyelids suddenly felt heavier than they ever were before. And just before he lost consciousness, he caught a glimpse of something silver.

**

"He's right this way, sir."

Rufus perked up when he heard the familiar voice of the young woman who used to be his secretary. It was a pleasant break from the constant drone of Hojo, mumbling to himself in the cell beside his.

Rufus shuffled himself slowly off the cold, steel bed. The lack of strength in his arms and, he soon realized, the rest of his body, frightened him; he wasn't used to being this weak. When his feet touched the floor, he carefully began to put his weight on them.

He remembered his attempt to reach the door to demand to know what was going on and why he was imprisoned in his own company's holding cell, but even though the door was only a few steps away, it seemed like an impossible feat.

Regardless, he was determined to keep his dignity. With his hands on the bed behind him for support, Rufus tried to stand up, but as he lifted himself up, his head whirled with refusal and a shock that seized almost every muscle in his body forced him back down in a sitting position. He grimaced in pain.

The metal door slid open and Rufus turned his head in its direction. From under blond strands of hair that fell over his eyes, he glared at the silver-haired man who stood there, watching him with that smug expression that he was so used to wearing.

"You…" Rufus sneered under his breath. His fingers curled under the bed frame, short nails trying to dig into the metal.

Sephiroth took a few steps into the room, standing against the wall opposite of Rufus. "I'd thought you'd be happy to see me." He glanced down at Rufus, whose lips threatened to form a slight snarl. Sephiroth gestured to the door where the president's secretary came in with a meal tray on a stand with wheels. "I've brought you lunch."

The brunette in a black business suit pushed the tray in the corner of the room beside Rufus's bed, bowed her head slightly to Sephiroth, and then left the cell. The door remained open, yet Rufus was still powerless to do anything. He didn't even look at the food.

"What have you done to me?" he asked in disgust. He could smell the scent of mashed potatoes and unidentifiable meat and vegetables coming from the corner, along with the strong scent of coffee from the mug beside the tray. It was the coffee, he remembered. Everything went out of control after he drank the coffee. He'd never take anything from that man again.

"I've given you a vacation. You should be thankful." His voice was steady. Not even a shred of regret or sympathy in it. He almost seemed happy.

Rufus lifted his head quickly to retort but winced as the sudden jerk triggered something in his head that muddled his thoughts. He gripped the edge of the bed again as if trying to hold onto lucidity as he looked to Sephiroth. "Wh-what are you doing?"

Sephiroth closed his eyes for a moment as a faint smile appeared on his lips. "Midgar. The Planet. They _need_ me."

Rufus scoffed.

Sephiroth continued, unfazed. "I am here to protect Gaia. I am here to protect all who reside on my beautiful planet, from the strong, proud SOLDIERs, to the young, innocent children- I am here to protect us all." He looked to Rufus, who held his gaze downward.

"Just think about how easily it was for those criminals to break down the barrier to the other world, enter Midgar and every other city in Gaia undetected, and steal whatever they pleased. Just think about what could have happened had they been after more than items. What if they had been after lives? Hm? What then, _president_?"

Rufus didn't look up.

Sephiroth stared down at him. "Hmph. Well…luckily, I am here."

There was a quiet knock at the door and Sephiroth looked to it, his face unreadable.

"Mr. Sephiroth." It was the secretary again. "We're ready for your speech, sir."

Sephiroth flashed a smirk that visibly stirred the young woman as her cheeks flushed red. "Thank you."

She bowed her head again and scurried away.

Sephiroth turned to Rufus and took a few steps. Rufus looked up and leaned away a bit as he approached. "Don't worry about a thing," Sephiroth's cold, green eyes pierced into the masked ones of the former head of Shinra. "Whose hands are better to put the Planet in than mine?"

And with that, Sephiroth stepped out of the room. The metal door slid shut and locked itself, leaving Rufus alone again in the metal cell. He had lost all feeling in his body.


	8. Chapter 0: Holy Mother!

A/N: As some of you may or may not know, I am currently participating in NaNoWriMo (and failing horribly at it), writing the prequel to an upcoming project of mine, so the next chapter of the Bishi Mafia will most likely come in December. For now, I will leave you all with a little side story about Sephiroth's and Gaia's past and explaining how the FF7 storyline fits into this story. I may or may not be turning this into a mini story later on.

This chapter would be set after Chapter 8, but you don't need to know anything about it except that Sephiroth had just given a speech to the entire population of the planet.

Hope you enjoy this little story!

* * *

**Chapter 0: Holy Mother…!  


* * *

**

Sephiroth turned from the large windows overlooking a peaceful sunset over the water when he heard a buzzer go off from the phone on the large metal desk. "Sir," the voice of the Shinra guard wavered a bit as he spoke. "There is someone here who wants to talk to you. She says she's your mother."

Sephiroth's eyes flashed wide only for a second and he stood there by the window staring at the phone. The warm orange light of twilight shone through the glass and onto his back, framing him with a golden glow. The lights were turned off in the president's office so that he could enjoy the sunset from the high vantage point, but his peace was broken with the news of _her_ coming.

His mind was flooded with memories of the events that took place not too long ago…those _horrid_ memories of _her_. Those long months, day after infuriating day, he had to endure her voice speaking to him unceasingly, driving up his anger and hatred until he could barely control it.

"Um…sir?" the guard asked again.

Sephiroth finally snapped out of his trance and pushed all the agonizing thoughts and painful memories out of his mind and stepped reluctantly to the phone. He pushed a button to speak. "…is she naked and covered in blue paint?" He said steadily, making sure that his…fear, was it?...of having contact with her again did not come out in his voice.

"Uh…" the guard…had to look?

"Is that him!?" a shrill voice was heard in the background. "Let me talk to him!"

Sephiroth cringed ever so slightly at the voice, _her _voice, a voice that he wished he wasn't so familiar with.

He heard rustling from the phone on the other end as the guard was obviously taken aback by the surprise force and her uncontrollable behaviour.

"SEPHY!!" the woman screamed into the phone. Her voice was unbearable to Sephiroth. "I saw you on TV making your speech. Don't you go and take over the world without me! And if people are going to hear about it, I want more than just one line this time! And I told you to start wearing shirts! You're going to catch a cold if you keep wearing just that thin jacket! You have no excuse to not wear a shirt either because I just sent you one! You know, the one with the dead chocobo on it. I knitted that just for you! And you look thin and pale- don't you remember what I told you? You need to start eating more peop-"

Sephiroth had tolerated as much as he could, and even though it was not like him to be so rude, he simply hung up.

**

"SON OF A WHORE!" the blue woman shrieked as she threw the phone to the concrete ground outside the Shinra building.

"Um…" the guard in the now-standard black suit watched his phone shatter into bits and pieces as it hit the concrete. "Excuse me," he said, looking at the woman, who was now breathing in and out deeply with anger. "But…how are you two related again? You look about the same age as him."

The blue woman straightened up and smiled at him, placing a hand on her bare hip and running the other through her long silver hair. "Aw, you think?" she said with surprising contrast to the beast she had become just a few moments ago. "Well, aren't you sweet?" She leaned in close to him and traced his jawbone from ear to chin with one slender finger. "I think I'll kill you last."

"Uh…" the guard stuttered as his eyes frantically looked left and right, but found that the guard he was partnered up with was nowhere close to him.

In actuality, he was right behind him, but on the other side of the entrance doors, on the phone speaking with Calamity's Son himself.

"Send her away," the General commanded. "If she is spotted on the grounds again, give her one warning. If she persists…fire at will."

The guard looked over his shoulder to see the naked woman getting a bit too close to his partner's personal space. "Yes, sir," the guard replied into the phone.

"I will send more guards down to reinforce the perimeter."

"Yes, sir."

**

Sephiroth sat himself down in the large leather chair and leaned over the desk. He placed his elbows on the cold metal surface and held his head up with his left hand on his temples. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to rid himself of the memories that plagued him now because of _her_ coming, because of _her _voice…forever stuck in his head.

The reactor, he remembered. The Nibelheim reactor.

**

Zack leaned his left forearm against the red metal wall of the reactor, grinning widely at Tifa who was pinned to the wall and now looking up at him as he got a little too close to her. "You know, they don't call my hometown "Gongaga" for nothing." He chuckled. "Get it? 'Gone Gaga'?"

"You're not funny, Zack." Cloud said, getting up from his seat on the stairs. He walked over to the pair and stood a few steps away, glaring at his friend. "And stop trying to look down her shirt."

Zack quickly took his arm off the wall to face Cloud. "Hey! I wasn't trying to do anything like that!"

Tifa joined Cloud in staring at him with mild false surprise on their faces.

"Really!" Zack said, his voice a bit higher than usual.

"Quiet, people, quiet!" Lazard called from the top of the stairs. The door to the chamber labeled "JENOVA" was wide open and the green-blue glow of the room could be seen even from the reactor's entrance. "We're about to being shooting. Zack, we need you for this part. Get ready."

Zack saluted to the director with two fingers. "Got it!"

Lazard turned and walked back into the backroom of the reactor. Sephiroth was standing on the raised platform at the end of the big red cord, waiting with a slightly bored look on his face.

Fixed to the walls of the large room were countless white cameras that resembled surveillance cameras, yet Lazard assured Sephiroth that the quality of their footage was far more superior. They were positioned precisely so that every angle was covered and that they would follow the movements of all those in the scene yet the cameras were unable to catch another camera in any of their shots.

Lazard looked over to the reactor entrance again to make sure that the young SOLDIER was quiet, before closing the metal door, moving to the far corner of the room, and nodding to Sephiroth. "All clear. You may start when you are ready."

Sephiroth turned around to face the metal Jenova doll that hid the actual tube-like container from view. He took a deep breath in and out slowly before he waited to begin his scene. He waited…and waited…for Zack.

Lazard noticed his absence and looked to the door. He couldn't hear Zack's footsteps coming up the stairs. For the first time since they set up there, the reactor was quiet when it wasn't supposed to be.

Finally, the door was blasted open, but as a furious Zack stood there in the doorway, he wasn't holding the Buster sword, he was holding a rather tattered stapled bunch of papers in his hand.

"Hey! Why didn't anyone tell me this?! Why am I the one who gets killed off!? I'm the lovable one!"

Lazard sighed and crossed his arms. "Didn't you read the script before you agreed to it?"

Zack said nothing. He just stared at him with his big blue eyes, an expression of disbelief, and a "how could you do this to me?" look on his face.

"Well," Lazard continued, "if it makes you feel better, Aeris gets killed off too."

Zack threw his arms up in the air. "NO! That DOESN'T make me feel better. Why would you think that would make me feel better?!"

"Well…as long as you're fired up, it would be best if you said your lines now." Lazard walked over to him, pushing him back into the reactor's entrance by the shoulders. "Remember, you're angry."

"Damn right, I'm angry! No freaking grunt is going to take down SOLDIER, First Class, Zack Fair!"

Once Zack was out of the room, Lazard closed the door again and quickly jogged to the far corner of the room. Just as he got there, Zack bursted into the room again, this time, with the iconic large sword.

Sephiroth quickly turned back around to face the Jenova doll before the cameras could catch him. Quickly getting into character, he said his lines in a low, quiet voice, "Mother, let's take back the planet together. I…I had an epiphany. Let's go to the Promised Land. Mother…"

"SEPHIROTH!" Zack yelled out to him from the bottom of the red cord. His rare burst of anger even surprised Sephiroth, but he didn't let it show. Zack delivered his lines perfectly. "Why did you kill the townspeople? Why did you hurt Tifa? Answer me, Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth chuckled, almost amused at Zack's anger. Though the laugh wasn't in the original script, it had escaped him, and he went along with it. He kept his eyes on the doll, staring up at it with utter fascination. "Mother, they're here again. You should have ruled this planet. You were stronger, smarter. But then they came." He glanced over his left shoulder, at Zack behind him. "Those inferior dullards. They came and took this planet away from you. But don't be sad, mother. I am with you now..."

He reached up to place his hands on both sides of the doll, and with one powerful motion, Sephiroth tore the metal doll away. Cords that connected to the doll were stretched until they ripped and deep red fluid seeped from the doll's eyes and mouth. When it was finally completely separated, he discarded it on the floor. When he looked up, his eyes were only set on one thing, and his face was forced to wear the feigned expression of wonderment and happiness.

"We meet at last…Mother"

The blue woman floated in the bluish liquid and was still and lifeless... but it only took a few seconds for her to bring her arms out from behind her back and started giggling hysterically. She held her stomach as she laughed.

"Huh?" Zack watched in curiosity from the background. His anger had disappeared, though, it was never really real in the first place.

Sephiroth's face quickly assumed its usual straightness as he stared at her, glared at her. Of all the scenes to screw up, this was the one she picked- the one he hated most because of all the emotion he had to portray.

"I...I'm sorry," she said in between her fits of laughter. Her voice echoed from inside the tube. "But your face...oh my goddess, Sephy, your face when you said that! That was so...adorable!"

Sephiroth turned around and walked back over the cord to the main platform where Lazard met with him. "This scene is not necessary," he said in monotone to the director.

Lazard looked up to where the woman in the tube still giggled uncontrollably. "Trust me, it is. The fans need to see this scene if any of it is going to make any sense. You need it to go through with the Reunion."

Sephiroth sighed.

"You know," Lazard said, still watching the woman laugh. "in one of the scenes after this, you're going to cut her head off." Lazard smiled at him, but there was no reaction from Sephiroth. "Well, I'll tell you what. For now, let's just take it from another scene without her if you're tired of working with her. But we only have one day to do the reactor scenes."

Lazard walked back to where he had been standing. He bent down and unzipped the black duffle bag on the floor to bring out an exact replica of the woman's head. "Here," he called out to Sephiroth as he stood up and tossed it to him. "Catch."

Sephiroth caught it with both hands.

"So…how about we do the last scene? The one where you jump into the lifestream?"

Sephiroth glanced over to the large hole in the reactor.

"Oh, come on!" Zack said cheerfully beside him. "It won't hurt you! At the very worse, you'll experience something like an acid trip."

The sound of Cloud's footsteps coming in from the entranceway caught everyone's attention as he spoke, "It's true. Tifa and I fell in by accident once and I saw three versions of myself, and one giant transparent one just floating around. I was stuck thinking the same things over and over until Tifa came over to talk to me."

Zack placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Of course, Cloud. You fell in 'by accident'". He chuckled. "You probably just pushed Tifa in to see if the lifestream acted like water when it came to t-shirts, right?"

Cloud just stared at him, while Tifa, still in the other room screamed, "I heard that, Zack!"

Zack smirked. "I'm not hearing a 'no' from you, Cloud."

"Lazard," Sephiroth said to him, ignoring them and the laughing blue woman. "Put a net in there," he demanded.

**

The sun had gone down yet Sephiroth made no attempt at turning on the light of the now dark president's office. The memories kept playing in his head.

**

Cloud opened the door to the Shinra basement library wearily. The combined smell of old books and odd chemicals took hold of him and confused him for just a second before he got to his senses again. He shook his head slightly, then entered the library.

Lazard was knelt down in the middle of the room, setting up a camera on the floor to get a long angle from the hallway. At the end of that hallway, behind the desk with a book in his hand paced Sephiroth. Whether Lazard was filming or not, Cloud couldn't tell, but he kept as quiet as he could, before he turned his head to the right to see…Zack in a tube.

Cloud walked to him. Zack was floating in a blue-green liquid in the tube with his eyes closed. His limbs were limp and his body seemed to be suspended in the middle of the tube by the bubbles that came from the bottom. Cloud slowly extended a hand to the tube, formed it into a fist, and contemplated knocking on the side, but just before his gloved knuckles reached glass, Zack's eyes shot open.

Startled, Cloud let out a small yelp of "woah!" as he fell backwards onto the table behind him.

Zack grinned. "You gotta try this, Cloud!" Zack's echoed voice was muffled from inside the tube. "It's so cool! I feel like I'm in a lava lamp!"

Cloud looked over his shoulder at Lazard. He was still busy with his camera, so Cloud concluded that he wasn't filming and it was safe to speak. "Can you…breathe in there?" he called out to Zack.

"Yeah, man! C'mon! There's one right there beside me!" He said, pointing to his right.

"Sephy, hun!" The actress who portrayed Jenova was back again, and she skipped into the library, past Lazard, down the hall, and towards Sephiroth. "Are we going to have lunch later on? I thought it would be a good idea to have a picnic behind the mansion!"

Sephiroth stopped pacing. He didn't even look at her. "Leave," he said in a low, dark voice. "Now." He wasn't kidding around.

The woman blinked in confusion for a moment before running out of the library.

Both Cloud and Lazard watched her as she ran, then looked to Sephiroth with a bit of alarm.

"She is the worse one yet," Sephiroth said to Lazard with a glare.

Cloud looked back at the tubes when the air in the library seemed to relax a bit. He finally decided to step into the one beside Zack's, but when he did, nothing happened. He looked around to figure out how to turn it on, but he never could.

Lazard went back to tinkering with the camera on the ground. "She was the only one who said she didn't know who you were," he replied.

"And you…believed her?"

"I thought she was too old to be a fangirl."

"Well," Sephiroth said, sitting down at the desk and flipping a page of the book he held. "she better be at the Reunion."

"Of course, she'll be there. She is the guest of honour after all."

**

The Reunion…

Sephiroth held his head in his hands, remembering everything about the Reunion- of all the planning, of all the films, photo shoots, and books. The Reunion took years of planning until it could finally happen…The Reunion of the millions of fangirls and fanboys that plagued Sephiroth…all of them would gather in the Northern Crater…and would be trapped there forever.

Whether they made it to the end or died along the way, in reality, Sephiroth just didn't care anymore. They suffocated him, trailed him everywhere he went, and even dug through his trash.

After the Reunion, most of the crazed fans were gone and Sephiroth finally felt free for the first time since he was twelve years old. But, of course, a few months later, he noticed more and more fangirls and fanboys popping up. They just kept coming. There was no stopping them.

What was worse was that…

_She_ was back. The ultimate fangirl. The one who knew Sephiroth the most because of her ties with Angeal and Genesis, because of her acting role as "Mother" to Sephiroth (which she still keeps up), and because she was just simply insane. She was the chairwoman of the Silver Elite- H.

Sephiroth sighed and pushed the large black chair away from the desk to stand up and leave the office.

No more. He didn't want to remember her anymore.

All he wanted now was to rest.


	9. Chapter 8: With Love From

**A/N:** Yikes. Sorry about to the super late update. I guess I got a kind of a NaNo hangover. Me being easily distracted and prone to procrastination doesn't help either. So, I guess, I won't be needing all those hours of learning to speak with a Scottish accent to write Cait Sith, or watching those mafia movies to write Sephiroth, huh? Is it too much to ask for a Scottish mafia movie? XD Braveheart's good enough, right? I'm sure Godfather Sephiroth's power metal would go well with broadswords and kilts. Okay, enough of my rambling. On with the story…

* * *

Chapter 8: With Love From…

* * *

"Charlie Team, Delta Team, please respond." It was Angeal on the radio.

Reno looked from the door to the classroom and back to the rest of the team. Vincent was the first to answer with a simple acknowledgement, "Yes?"

"Has everything gone to plan?"

Vincent lowered his eyes on Reno. So did the rest of the team members.

Reno rolled his eyes and spun on a toe, turning his back on him, defending himself to Angeal before anyone could interrupt. "Well, it's not like we had a plan in the first place."

"But other than that," Angeal continued, "Is everything under control?"

"Controlled as in _my control_ or…"

"Yes," Vincent finally said, making Reno shoot a glare over his shoulder at him.

"Good," the SOLDIER praised, "But we're going to have to get both of your teams to hold off for a little while longer. There's been an unexpected…mess with the Alpha/Bravo teams and Genesis's kidnapping."

"What?" Reno said with a half laugh. "Genesis got kidnapped?"

"An-Angeal!" It was Cloud's voice coming in, hoarse and strained.

Zack came in right after with the same desperate, pleading voice. "Fangirls…everywhere…crushing us…can't…breathe…!"

"I'm aware of the situation," Angeal said, strictly business-like. "But we need you to stay where you are and not initiate any action for just a while longer until everything gets straightened out. The only thing the writer got right was Sephiroth's scenes…" he trailed off, muttering, "Not surprisingly."

"Uh…The '_writer'?_" Reno asked.

Angeal went on. "Just wait where you are. We can't have you making a bigger mess of things with the timing of the scenes. We froze everything to make certain of that. Don't do anything until I give you the signal, understand?"

"'Froze'? What do you mean 'froze'? And you're saying 'we' a lot too. Is there something you're not telling us?"

There was a pause, but then he came back with a simple, "No, not really."

"So, you're saying that despite the fact that we're so close to the guy we're trying to catch, we can't go on because of some extra-dimensional force stopping us? I'm getting really sick of waiting for some real action to happen here!"

"Just do what I say, Turk."

Reno let go of the "Talk" button of the earpiece and threw a hand up, muttering, "'Just do what I say...'" He scoffed and turned to his team. "If we're going to be here and not do anything, I'm going to get some lunch. There's gotta be some food around here."

"Yeah!" Zidane perked up with a smile. "I'm hungry too."

"I suppose I'm rather famished myself," Kuja said as he walked towards Reno.

Cait Sith bounded off of Vincent after him. "It'd be good to scope out the place!"

Reno looked to the others. "Anyone else?"

Squall, Vincent, and Rude didn't answer. They didn't even look at him.

"Suit yourselves," Reno said as he turned around and gave an absent-minded wave. "If we don't come back, avenge our deaths!"

Zidane, Kuja, and Cait Sith followed behind him and they made their way through the large empty halls of the Ouran Academy.

**

Sephiroth made his way away from the Shinra holding cells to the elevator, taking it one floor up to the president's reception room. Just when the elevator bell rang and the heavy metal doors began to slide open, Sephiroth could hear someone yelling.

"Stop! Stop!" a man called out. He was running after a small creature that was bounding towards the elevator.

Sephiroth looked down to see a small, blue, panther-like monster with an extra furless tail coming from the back of its head. It stopped at the shock of another person's presence in front of it when all it thought it was running towards was a wall, but quickly got over the shock and started barking at Sephiroth.

The man quickly caught up with it and knelt down, picking it up as it tried to squirm out of his grip. "Finally," he sighed.

"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked with a slightly bored tone in his voice.

The man looked up at him as he stood up, revealing his sharp forest-green eyes. The baby Guard Hound was still squirming in his arms as he held it to his chest, making the man's neat black tie come out from the jacket it was tucked under. The tail on the monster's head whipped at his cheek that was covered by a black mask, hiding his nose and mouth. He flinched away at it, closing his left eye and holding a hand up to his cheek; his silvery hair was just long enough to reach his fingertips.

"Hey, watch it!" he half-heartedly sneered at it. "Uh," the man looked to Sephiroth again. "Cloud asked me to pick this puppy up from his place before he left. He said it was an apology to Rufus for the accident with Dark Nation."

The president's secretary came up to him and he gave the creature to her with a muttered, "Thanks" before turning back to the General.

"So, you're an errand boy now?" Sephiroth asked him as he made his way up the stairs towards his new office on the seventieth floor.

The younger man followed, walking beside him. The two long ends of the mask that was tied behind his head floated behind him. "I don't mind. He's Zack's friend after all," he said, putting his tie back in place and running a hand over it to smooth his suit down. He then rubbed his cheek where the Guard Hound had stung it. The light fabric of the mask had only slightly shielded the accidental attack.

Sephiroth looked at him from the corner of his eye. "After all these years, you still wear that mask," he said, almost annoyed by it. "I do not recall a ninja being in our ranks."

He chuckled and shook his head slightly. "Ninjas are awesome! But…I don't know. I guess I'm just used to having something cover my face. I'm more comfortable that way, you know? Besides, I'm getting pretty good at using two Katanas simultaneously. My aim with small, sharp objects isn't too bad either. It's never a bad thing to have a ninja on your side."

"What do you have to report to me?" Sephiroth asked, tiring of the small talk and getting to the point.

He cleared his throat, returning to a more professional mindset. "Phase One of Operation Genocide is complete, sir. The target has successfully been apprehended and is currently in transport to Cactus Island. We made sure that he does not know who we are, who I am, or why he had been the target. The other troops are all set to go as well. Everything has gone as you had instructed, sir."

"Good."

The two of them reached the top of the stairs and Sephiroth made his way to the window behind the desk. The man with the shorter silver hair stood in the middle of the room watching him, standing with his back straight and his right hand holding his left wrist in front of him.

Sephiroth stayed silent for a while, looking down at the flood of people that had assembled outside below. He couldn't see any faces. He was too high up and there were too many people. All he saw was a massive dark-coloured crowd that surrounded the Shinra building. Off to the side on the balcony was a black helicopter, formerly labeled with the Shinra logo. Now, it had a silver stripe going horizontally across the body of the copter with a simple, sharp three-stroked 'S' in the middle of it. The blades of the rotor were already whirling. The helicopter was waiting for him.

Sephiroth turned away from the window and began towards the door to the balcony. "Care to join me on stage?"

The young man looked to him in surprise, but held his position. He always thought the General was the type of person to want all the glory to himself. Did he have stage fright? No, he couldn't possibly. Then was it his fans? They did border on obsessive worshippers after all. Just from the horror stories he had heard through rumors, even he had been a bit weary of them, not wanting to be with Sephiroth outside of the safety of the Shinra building in fear of getting caught up in the storm of screaming fans. On the other hand, he had never seen Sephiroth leave the building unless it was on very important missions. Maybe it did have something to do with the fans. He thought, if anything, the Masamune was good for crowd control.

"You are my son after all," Sephiroth said with just a slight upturn on his lips.

He answered with a smirk of his own and slightly bowed his head as he spoke, returning to, not only professionalism, but also to Sephiroth's newly favoured embellished style of speech, "Of course. My humble thanks, Godfather."

And with that, the two of them made their way out onto the balcony and into the helicopter, where it took off almost immediately.

**

"He wasn't jokin' around when he said they froze everything," Reno said as he peeked into a random classroom on his search for the cafeteria, staff room, or some kid's lunch box- anywhere where he could get some food. Zidane, Kuja, and Cait Sith followed in behind him as he almost cautiously walked into the room, watching the students in their seats on the left as they remained eerily still. Not even the subtle rise and fall of chests to indicate breathing could be seen. No movement. No signs of life. Even the teacher at the chalkboard on the right of the room was still, frozen in place with the chalk in his hand up in mid-word.

Cait Sith bounded from behind the group and towards the closest student in the first row. He jumped, rolled into a flip, and landed on top of the desk, waving a white gloved paw in front of her opened eyes. "She's out, all right."

"How is this possible?" Zidane asked as he walked in between the rows of desks, and examining the students, albeit a bit too closely as he 'd lean over and put his face right up to one of the students' and look into their open eyes.

Reno was more interested in the teacher's chalkboard than the students. He took the piece of chalk from the old man's hand and turned around to the rest of the group. "Who knows? Considering it's Angeal, he'd probably say that he has the power of honor, or something." He turned around again and began writing something under the words "Today's lesson" that had already been written.

"Perhaps he and Ultimecia are working together," Kuja, standing by the open door, speculated.

"Who?" Reno asked.

"As you have said yourself, Angeal seems to be co-operating with someone. Perhaps it is Ultimecia, Leonheart's nemesis. She is quite a..." Kuja paused for a moment to find the right word to describe her. "An interesting sorceress with the ability to control time itself."

"Big deal. I can do that with materia."

Zidane made his way to the back of the class where he pulled a cat-eared headband off of one of the girls. He put it on himself and grinned at Cait Sith. "Hey, look, we match now!" he said, flicking his tail up once.

Cait Sith made his way over to Zidane, jumping from one desk to the other, stopping one desk away from him. "At least now, if people saw you, they'd think you're just dressing up."

Zidane nodded and looked around some more out of habit. Being around rich people with their stuff out in the open brought out his inner thief tenfold, and when he looked into the desk of the formerly cat-eared girl, he stuck his hand in and pulled out the first thing he touched.

It was a notebook with a marker-embellished cover on it that read "FF Fics". With mild interest, he stood up and flipped through the pages. They were stories written in pencil but Zidane didn't bother to stop and read any of it until he came to a full page dedicated to the word "RENO" written in bold red letters across it. He flipped the page again and found that the prose that followed it indeed included a character named Reno.

"Hey, Reno," Zidane called out to the Turk at the front of the classroom. "Your name's in this."

"Huh?" Reno put down the piece of chalk and walked away from the chalkboard that now read,

"Today's lesson:

NEVER TRY"

"Here," Zidane handed the notebook to him as he approached. "Take a look."

Reno took it from him and Zidane went off the search the other desks, more interested in stealing than reading. "Why would my name be…" Reno wondered as he quickly skimmed through the pages. He didn't think anything of it and after a while, he began bored and flipped through the pages after mere glimpses, but suddenly paled as a familiar name caught his eye- Rude.

His eyes grew wide and his face showed concern mixed with disgust that increased as he skimmed the pages further. It was when he read the word "caressed," that he closed the book, dropped it on the girl's desk, and began walking flat-footed out of the classroom; his messy red hair shielding his eyes from view. "We're leaving," he said with authority that Zidane, Kuja, nor Cait Sith had ever heard from him before.

Zidane pocketed something from a boy's desk and quickly followed Reno and Cait Sith out the door. Kuja, however, was curious as to what it was that made Reno react that in such a way.

He walked over to the girl's desk at the back of the room, picked up the notebook, and began flipping through it.

He smirked.

Reno/Rude, Reno/Vincent, Reno/Cloud, Reno/Rufus, Reno/Yazoo…

"Hm? Who is Yazoo?" he wondered.

Kuja heard quick footsteps from outside return to the classroom door. "We're leaving!" Reno repeated as he stepped back into the classroom."And don't you dare try to hide that from me!"

The smirk would not leave Kuja's face as he looked at the bewildered team leader from the corner of his eye.

"Come on!" Reno yelled as he turned his back on him and continued out the door with a string of rambling. "It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone…What the hell is…I don't even…This is just way too weird! How do they even-" He interrupted his fractured train of thought by pressing the button on the earpiece and yelling, "Angeal!" to call the mysterious person who seemed to know a lot more than anyone else about what was happening. He let go of the button to continue his ramblings. "What is this place? Where are we? Can they see us right now? Where's that food at!?!"

As his voice and the sound of Zidane trying to calm him down grew softer and farther away, Kuja placed the closed book down on the girl's desk. He looked to the book, then to the girl, shook his head, and chuckled to himself. "I never saw him in that way before," he said, as he leisurely made his way out of the classroom.

**

The crowd was massive and there were people everywhere. Even if they couldn't see the centre, they gathered as close as they could around the outdoor stage behind the Shinra building. They were all there to see one person- Sephiroth, the new president of Shinra. There were fans of all varying intensities- from mere interested fan, to knowledgeable Silver Elites, to devout Jenova's Witnesses (complete with black cloaks and Roman numeral tattoos), and of course, to rabid fangirls/fanboys.

All around were video cameras from every news channel The Planet had, along with journalists that fought as hard as the fans to get closest to the stage.

In the centre of the stage stood a lone black podium with many different microphones on it, but on the front of the stand, the usual Shinra logo no longer could be seen. Instead, it was a new symbol, one that not many people recognized but was all over Midgar already, adorning almost every billboard, street post, and building in the city- the silver, sharp, three-stroked 'S'. In fact, there were no traces of the Shinra logo anywhere in the city. It was a new era.

At the back, two large pictures of a portrait Sephiroth recently had painted of himself was hung in-between the company's new logo. And all around were large speakers that now amplified a live rendition of Trail of Blood that was played by a combination of metal guitars and a full symphony. And somehow, despite the number of people already up there, the stage still looked bare without its main attraction.

Then, there was the sound of a helicopter coming towards the stage and everyone in the crowd looked up, cheering, and watching it as it landed on the street beside the stage. And, at the first glimpse of Sephiroth getting out of the helicopter, the fans tried to swarm towards him. The female percentage of the crowd was audibly well-represented when they realized that he wasn't in his famous coat and armour, but instead, in a smart black suit and a silver tie. They went wild and pushed towards him but a line of men and women in black suits stood guard, blocking them off.

Sephiroth caught the act in the corner of his eye but didn't do anything. Everything was going well and he approved.

He made his way up the stage as the young silver-haired man followed behind him, along with five other suited personnel, hand-picked by Sephiroth himself to accompany him onstage. And as Sephiroth stepped foot onto the stage, the metal band and symphony began playing his second favourite song- Those Chosen by the Planet- with strong emphasis on the guitars. They were still working on the power metal version of One Winged Angel and were instructed not to play it in public until it was absolutely perfect. But, as the first few notes reached his ears, he gave a half nod to the musicians. This, he also approved.

The crowd's cheers grew louder as Sephiroth approached the podium; the six black suits stood in a horizontal line behind him, three on each side of him, and when he reached the stand, they stood tall with their feet shoulder-width apart and their hands together behind them, moving in sync with each other. It was obvious, despite their attire, that they were indeed soldiers.

Sephiroth looked over the crowd with a peaceful expression on his face, even if the crowd was threatening to turn into a mosh pit at any moment to get to him. He closed his eyes and held up his left hand, and slowly, the crowd fell silent, leaving the band and orchestra alone to fill the air with slightly muted music that would be the background music to his speech.

When it was finally silent, Sephiroth looked to the crowd again and finally began.

"Today is a glorious day," he said proudly into the microphones, his voice amplified through the speakers.

Some of the fangirls in the audience couldn't help but let out a squee at the sound of his voice caressing their ears. One girl from somewhere in the middle of the crowd screamed, "We love you, Sephy!!" and the audience erupted in cheers again, but quickly died down to let the man speak.

"Throughout my life, I have acquired many titles- SOLDIER, First Class; General; Hero; Godfather."

There were whispers of confusion as to when the Godfather title had come about, but the crowd hung on his every word nonetheless.

"And on this day, I will gain yet another- President."

He paused again to let the crowd's cheers fill the air before continuing.

"And with that title, I will lead you to a new world, to a better world, one under my control, my rule.

"I come before you today as your new protector and your new emperor. I come before you as the one who now holds the reins to the Lifestream, taken from a man whose strength and courage fell short of what the Planet truly deserves. This Planet will soon see a shining, glorious future, and," he paused for a slight second to emphasize the last part, "I will lead you there."

There were cheers and applaud again.

"My brothers and sisters here," he said, opening his arms out to suggest the suited men and women behind him, "will guide you along the way to our transformation and will carry out my will across the lands. Should you decide to join their noble ranks, your devotion will be rewarded. And, I assure you, you will be treated well." The crowd erupted with cheers that were overwhelmed with the high-pitched screams of Sephiroth's more devout female fanatics.

The silver-haired young man behind him couldn't help but smile a bit under his mask. Maybe Sephiroth would have fewer rabid fans if he didn't cater to their fantasies so often.

"So," Sephiroth said, his eyes scanning over the crowd from left to right. "Who will be the first to take part in my new world?"

The noise coming from the crowd shook the ground and arms flew up into the air. Even the infantry guards were having a hard time containing the fans.

Sephiroth smirked at the audience's reaction, but that slight twitch of his lips only caused the volcano of fans to become more active.

**

"Reno," Zidane said to the Turk on the other side of the sneeze guard.

Reno, who was scarfing down forkful after forkful of teriyaki udon straight from the food warmer almost constantly for nearly twenty minutes, didn't seem to notice. The Turk had already cleared a deep pan's worth of noodles and only a single, lonesome one was left in it as he continued his noodle massacre with the pan right next to it. The cafeteria worker that had been standing where Reno now stood was shoved aside and was now lying on the floor.

Reno wanted food. And nothing got in the way between Reno and his food.

"I think you've had enough," Zidane said steadily.

Reno stabbed the pile of noodles with his fork and glared at Zidane and held his gaze long enough to make him feel just the slightest bit threatened. "I'll tell you when I've had enough!" he said, and picked up his fork again.

Zidane turned away from him, leaning on the edge of the counter as he surveyed the room. The cafeteria was large, larger than any school's cafeteria he had ever seen before. But then again, he had never been to such a rich school before. Even the food here rivaled that of a five-star restaurant…at least, Zidane imagined. He'd never bothered with the fancy stuff. Unlike his brother, Kuja, who sat himself down at a nearby table with a tray of food that he didn't even know how to pronounce, and more kinds of utensils that he thought was even possible to eat one meal.

As for himself, he had had his fill of some odd seasoned meat that he saw one of the few students in the cafeteria eating. It being too early for lunch, the place was almost empty with only some of the older students hanging around, possibly for breakfast or brunch. And they, too, had been affected by whatever spell Angeal or whoever he was working with had cast onto them- captured in a freeze frame as was Cait Sith, who now stood beside him, inactive, waiting for the team to finish eating.

Zidane could still hear Reno slurping and chewing rabidly behind him as if the world was going to end if he didn't finish off every single thing in the entire refectory. He didn't know what was in that book, but whatever it was, it sure made an impression of Reno.

This world was odd, that was something he knew for certain. What still confused him, though, was how Angeal was able to freeze everyone from this world, leaving Zidane and his friends unaffected. After repeated calls to him, Reno still could not get Angeal to respond.

"He did say something about a 'writer'," Zidane muttered to himself.

**

After the speech, Sephiroth and the soldiers had been brought back to the President's level of the Shinra building via helicopter, and inside in his new office, Sephiroth dismissed all of them except one- the silver-haired man.

"A word, please," Sephiroth said to him as the others walked away.

"Yes?" he said with a surprised expression playing on his masked face. He stood, relaxed, a bit different than when he was standing at ease alongside the others.

Sephiroth took his place in the seat behind the large metal desk and crossed his arms, contemplating for a moment to make sure he was certain of his decision. "I have chosen you to supervise Operation Genocide. Make sure everything goes well, that the ingredients are taken care of, and that Genesis…goes through with his mission."

"B-but sir," he stuttered. "He's a First. There's no way I can even defend myself if he decides he doesn't want to listen to me. It took…four of my strongest to take him down the first time."

Sephiroth glanced at him with those same eyes that could take down the most confident people. He did not appreciate being told what he already knew. "Is there a problem?"

The man considered stepping back a bit, but held his ground. He would prove his strength to him. "No, sir," he answered, his military training showing through.

"And you have already made the preparations, sent out the invitations?"

"Yes, sir."

"You may recruit those four you have used before."

"Yes, sir."

Sephiroth looked to him again, but this time, his expression was softer, that of a friend's. "Go in my stead and set the kindling for the flames. Remind him who's in charge."

The man was confused but he did not question him. Though he did pick up on his change in attitude and relaxed a bit.

Sephiroth went on, "Should this mission be a success, I shall promote you to First."

His bright green eyes lit up with happiness, and, suppressing a laugh, he asked, "And I'll get fangirls too, right?"

Sephiroth allowed himself to smirk as he gave a slight nod. "All the fangirls you need."

"Yes!" The man did a fist pump before looking back at his superior. "Thank you, Godfather."

Sephiroth nodded to him again. "Go. Be there by tomorrow."

"Yes, sir!" He said, and took his leave.

Sephiroth leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath in and out, swiveling the chair to face the window. The sun was almost setting.

**

Outside the math class, Vincent, Squall, and Rude waited. Squall leaned against a wall with his arms crossed and eyes, pointed down, closed; Vincent stood by the window, looking out at the sky; and Rude simply stood there. No words were spoken. Not even eye contact was made.

Rude cleared his throat.

**

Sephiroth stood in the president's office, staring out the window at the gentle sun setting over the water. He held his hands behind his back as his mind began to wander and all of his grand and glorious ideas played in front of his mind's eye. A small smirk crept upon his face. Shinra, Midgar, the Planet- they all belonged to him now, and he would make sure that he would put his signature on everything and everyone that was in his world-wide kingdom.

At his feet beside him, a small chocobo ruffled his feathers as he looked up at Sephiroth and quickly adjusted his pose according to him- wings folded behind him, eyes staring out into the distance, standing proud, noble, confident. He, too, had plans.

Suddenly, the golden-yellow chocobo choked out a small "wark" at the sudden noise of the buzzer that sliced through the peaceful silence.

Sephiroth reacted as well, but his reaction was just a simple turn away from the window and to the phone on the large metal desk.

"Sir," the voice of the Shinra guard wavered a bit as he spoke. "There is someone here who wants to talk to you. She says she's your mother."

**

Inside Music Room #3 was a mess of scattered bodies piled on top of one another and under the dog pile of bright yellow dresses were the Alpha and Beta teams. The girls were frozen in place, some even frozen in mid-air, caught in the motion of jumping onto the pile. All was eerily still and quiet…except for Zack, who felt the need to fill the air with song.

"Ohh, Puff, the magic draaagon lived by the seaaa, and frolicked in the Autumn mist in a la-"

"Zack!" Leon Kennedy interrupted the SOLDIER, who was pinned against the floor not too far away from him. "Seriously! Shut up!"

Zack gave a weak laugh. "Sorry. It's stuck in my head."

"I thought you couldn't breathe," Tidus threw his voice from across the room.

"I kinda got used to it." Zack was more conscious of what little space he had for his diaphragm to expand, but after about an hour had gone by, it didn't bother him too much. The space he had created between his chest and the horde of girls that packed into the room on top of them was just enough to make him comfortable enough to go back to his carefree ways.

Again, he tried to push the mass of flowy yellow dresses, trying to free himself, but only managed to free half of his head. Struggling to readjust himself to make sure he had enough room to breathe, he surveyed the room for the first time, eyes peeking out from underneath the pool of white and yellow.

"Woah!" a breath escaped him when he saw what was right above him. Suspended in the air was a girl. Not just any girl. She was…"Freaky," Zack muttered to himself. She wore the same uniform as the other girls but her eyes were like those of a predatory animal's- wide, focused, and menacing. Her dyed-blond hair spread out in the air behind her like a lion's mane. Her mouth was open and shaped in a sort of snarl and her hands formed into claws in front of her, complete with sharp talon-like nails. She was like a deranged panther in mid-pounce.

"Sheesh! When this is over, remind me to never come to this world again!"

"Can you get out?" Cloud called out to him.

Zack tried to wriggle out some more but could barely move. Slowly, he moved his head to the left as he spoke. "It might take a while, but I---Oooh, a kitty!"

"Huh?" was everyone's response at Zack's sudden change in tone.

The orange cat was an arm's length away, if Zack could free his arm to reach for it. Its ears were pinned down to its skull, eyes shut tight, and its two front paws were in front of it, claws extended out, digging into the tile floor. It was frozen in a state of fear, yet unlike the Alpha and Bravo teams, the cat wasn't being visibly crushed. Above, between the cat and the sea of girls, was a great deal of space, enough to have a full body fill it.

But Zack didn't care about the oddness of the situation. He cared about the cat. It wasn't wearing a collar, he noted.

"Hey, Cloud," Zack asked.

"Hm?" Cloud responded suspiciously, cautioned by the way Zack's words came through. He could detect a smile from his voice alone.

"You think Aerith likes cats?"

Cloud sighed and said nothing, focusing more on trying to free himself than speaking about unrelated topics, even if it was Aerith.

"Yeah," Zack went on, "I think I'm going to give him to her as a present. I'm sure she'll like him!" Zack chuckled a bit, imagining how Aerith would react when he'd surprise her with the orange cat when he got back.

"…I don't know why you still like her," Cloud suddenly said. He didn't know why he said it. The words had escaped him, possibly pushed out by slight annoyance or anger.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Cloud was silent for a moment, before going on. "That day. That day when you were practicing with Angeal and the grate gave in and you fell into Aerith's church, all she did was yell 'hello' at you."

"And?" Zack didn't understand what he was getting at.

"Zack…you were bleeding all over the place. The floorboards were soaked with blood. The white flowers grew pink. You had a huge gash on the left side of your head. Your skull was fractured, your left lung collapsed, and you broke an arm, a leg and three ribs. Zack, you were in a coma for three months, don't you remember?"

"Uh…" Zack thought for a while, but couldn't remember a thing. "Nope! Doesn't ring a bell!"

Cloud sighed. "Of course, it doesn't." But it would explain some of Zack's behaviour, Cloud thought.

Zack glanced back at the cat and chuckled, again thinking of how to surprise Aerith with it. That was when he remembered something else. "Hey, didn't you fall into her church, too?"

"Yeah."

From across the room, Tidus interrupted. "Don't you think they should just get rid of that grate?"

Ignoring him, Zack went on. "Well, wasn't she there to help you, too?"

"No," Cloud shook his head slightly even though no one could see it. "All she did was yell 'hello' at me. It was a good thing Reno was there, or I would've died."

Then, there was a snicker coming from the direction of the door. "Someone say my name?"

"Reno!" Zack exclaimed. He sniffed the air when he smelt something familiar. "Is that a burger?"

"No, it's not," Reno quickly stuffing half of the burger he had left in his hand into his mouth. After attacking the noodles, he had found a stash of burgers in the kitchen of the cafeteria and made off with an armful of them. With his stomach full, he seemed to be in a better mood. "Looks like you guys were having fun," he said as he stepped into the room, looking around at all the bodies on the ground. It was like a battleground without the blood.

"Reno," Cloud called out. "You think you can move them out?"

"Well," Reno stopped to look at the panther-like girl hovering over Zack. "I can try." With a hand, he pushed her shoulder slightly. She slid through the air a bit. "Huh," he mused. "Well, that's new." He looked to Zidane, Kuja, and Cait Sith. "They don't seem to weigh anything and nothing seems to be holding them in place."

"So why can't we move?" Tidus yelled out. "This doesn't make any sense!"

Reno shrugged but didn't bother answering.

"Why is no one listening to me!?" Tidus sighed.

Reno motioned for his team to get to work helping them. "Let's just sort this out first. Get them out of this room."

"Right," Zidane said. Kuja and Cait Sith nodded dutifully.

One by one, they picked up the girls and moved them out of the room and left them in the hall, down the stairs. And slowly, Cloud, Link, Tidus, Leon, Zack, Zelos, and Irvine were freed, and without the cluster of girls, the large, pink room seemed almost empty. Nonetheless, the boys were glad to be able to breathe again.

"Hey, do you guys realize that there's a cow in this room?" Reno asked the two team leaders, but only Cloud was paying attention.

He turned to look at it, standing in the corner. Cloud scratched his head. "I…guess we didn't notice that."

"It's a pretty big thing not to notice…"

"Look," a cat-eared Zidane went up to Cloud and Reno with something in his cupped hands. "I found a rat, too."

"And a kitty!" Zack grinned, standing up suddenly with the orange cat dangling from his hands.

Reno covered his eyes with his right hand, muttering, "This just gets weirder and weirder…"

"Charlie Team, please respond," Angeal's voice came on the radio and Reno's eyes suddenly opened wide.

"I've got a lot of questions for you, Angeal! Don't you run away from me again!" he yelled into the microphone as he started to pace the room.

Angeal was unmoved and simply stated, "Everything has been fixed and ready to go now. The unfreeze will occur in exactly ten minutes. Get back into position."

"No!" Reno threw his hands up in the air. He seemed almost hysterical, which Kuja couldn't help but chuckle at. "I don't even know what the hell you're talking about! Answer me! Who are you working with? How are you able to freeze these people? Why do these people know who we are? Why am I in some cat-girl's notebook doing weird stuff with my co-workers!? I want answers now or I want them eventually!!"

Angeal didn't say anything. On the other end, all Reno could hear was a second of him laughing before the radio cut out.

Reno growled. "Angeal! Answer me!"

There was no answer.

"Angeal!" Reno tried again, but again, there was no answer. "Dammit!"

Zidane went over to him to try and calm him down. "C'mon, boss, forget about it. Let's just get on with our mission, okay? We've got ten minutes, right? We better hurry."

Reno sighed in defeat and frustration. "Fine," he said, as he made his way towards the door. "Let's just get this guy and get out of here."

**

Sephiroth had been fine up until that afternoon, but he'd had a dull headache since the return of the crazed Silver Elite chairwoman, H, or, as listed in her audition papers, Harmony. Sephiroth made his way to his apartment in the residential wing of the Shinra building, ignoring all the suited guards that greeted him along the way. With a swipe of his keycard, the door opened with a swoosh and he stepped in, walking towards his bedroom.

From inside his apartment, he could hear an emergency siren go off in the rest of the building, but he ignored it. Random security busts wasn't his problem and would be taken care of by the guards. If they really needed him, he'd either be notified by either a personal call or a major explosion near the entrance.

The stress that came from the flood of memories that now plagued his mind now caused him to feel suffocated, and his chest tight. With his left hand, he tugged at the knot of his tie to loosen it, giving his throat some more space. Just before he got to his room, he suddenly froze in mid-step in the hallway. His narrowed eyes looked off to the right, then to the left, searching for something he wasn't quite sure of. The small hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. For some reason, he felt like someone was watching him.

**

Harmony's contact-red eyes followed Sephiroth as she peeked out from behind a corner from the darkened kitchen. A wide toothy smirk spread across her blue-painted face. "Soon, my Sephy," she whispered in a deep, low voice. "Soon, you will be mine, alone. Soon, we will be together and the Promised Land shall me ours!" She watched the General as he disappeared into his bedroom and closed the door behind him.

She began to snicker as she slowly stepped out from behind the kitchen wall to follow him but stopped suddenly when she felt a strong grip on her bare shoulder.

"Kolkolkolkol," she heard a quiet chuckling behind her.

Her eyes sprung open wide and her entire body froze. She slowly turned around only to see a tall man in a long brown militant-looking wool coat with a pale pinks scarf. He looked down at the naked blue woman, his big purple eyes shadowed by his grey-blond hair.

He smiled as he spoke in a soft, gentle voice, "You're a funny one."

His brown gloved hand tightened on Harmony's shoulder. He tilted his head slightly to the right, closed his eyes, and gave an innocent, child-like smile. "You will become one with Russia, da?"

Harmony's mouth gaped open and she tried to shrink backwards but was held in place where she stood by his powerful grip.

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

~Hey, hey, Papa, give me some Potion!~

~Hey, hey, Mama! Hey, hey, Mama!~

~I can't forget that taste~

~Of the fried Chocobo I ate before! ~

~Draw a circle, and there's Gaia! ~

~Look closely, and there's Gaia! ~

~Might it be Gaia? My name is Midgar! ~

~Ahhh, what a fabulous world~

~That can be made with a swipe of a brush! ~

~With First Class SOLDIERS and the Turks~

~The Lifestream belongs to us!~

* * *

**A/N**: Just a clarification to make sure there is no confusion- when Sephiroth said "son", he actually meant "godson". I left it at "son" because it just didn't have the same epic ring as "godfather". But no, he is not an original character…sort of. You'll know him.

And yes, Reno is on a food and Simpsons binge, and I did base Sephiroth's symbol on Zorro's symbol XD.

''Puff, the Magic Dragon'' © Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow


	10. Chapter 9: Knights, Spies, and Allies

**A/N**: After learning that George Newbern (Sephiroth's English voice actor) is in Saw VI, I eventually had to incorporate the movie in one of my stories somehow. Also, are there any Torchwood/Doctor Who fans out there? If so, Zack has something that may be of interest to you...though he might be confusing the two Captain Jacks (Harkness and Sparrow).

So erm…after hours of research and not satisfied with the type of clothing that Russia might wear under his coat (blue and white stripes? hrm…), I just went ahead and made him shirtless XD. There's already been two and a half (Cloud, Sephiroth, and more or less Genesis) shirtless scenes so far so…just picture a bishified Russia (veeeh..?). Fanservice all the way ;D

'

* * *

Chapter 9: Knights, Spies, and Allies  
(Alternative Title: The Art of Intimidation)

* * *

Genesis didn't know how long he had been out, but eventually, he awoke, groggy and more or less paralyzed. Even his mind felt too foggy to form comprehensive thoughts. He couldn't feel his arms or legs, and no matter how hard he tried to open them, his eyes remained firmly shut. He was floating in darkness without knowledge of where he was or what had happened.

Then, he heard something.

"Hello, Genesis," a dark, mocking voice said to him, seemingly coming from all directions around him.

His thoughts managed to converge on each other, fueled by enough fury to curse his name._ Seph…iroth!_

Genesis tried to move again but his limbs could barely respond. Thankfully, though, he was able to open his eyes with what little strength he had and realized that he was in a small, dimly lit, rectangular box of a building with only room for a bed on which he was lying, and a stand beside him on which a flickering TV sat facing him.

Genesis managed to tilt his head just enough to the right to see the TV screen flash of static, then show a close up of Sephiroth's face.

"I want to play a game," he said through a smirk.

Genesis ignored him, concerned more about his current condition than another one of Sephiroth's crazy schemes. He tried to move his arms and discovered that, with a lot of effort, he could. The feeling in his limbs was quickly returning to him and he managed, inch by inch, to push himself up in a sitting position.

The video of Sephiroth continued to play without his attention. "You are on Cactus Island, and here you will gather the ingredients necessary to reach Concrete Feather's six-month quota. There will be a SOLDIER waiting for you outside. He will be your lieutenant, there to assist you in commanding the troops that have been summoned by you."

The last bit caught Genesis's attention and his eyes snapped back to the TV screen. The email, he remembered. But he didn't finish it. Or send it. But how? Who?

"An airship will arrive in exactly forty-eight hours to retrieve you and the ingredients. If you refuse to act…" Sephiroth trailed off. "Well, I am sure you are aware of the consequences, but I have decided to make things more interesting.

"Your beloved book is in a safe on the roof of Headquarters. That safe has four locks. Three keys are held by three random monsters scattered across this island, while the last one is located on the airship that will take you home. Unlock the safe with these keys, and the book is yours. But that is not all."

Of course, nothing with him would be that simple. There was another flash of static before Sephiroth continued.

"The safe is set to incinerate anything inside it in exactly…fifty hours from now. Your time is running out. Act quickly, or Loveless will burn. Make your choice."

Genesis stood up suddenly, fists clenched and eyes burning into the TV screen as he watched the picture of Sephiroth disappear into a sea of static. It was only after a few seconds of cursing him that Genesis realized he was standing up when only a few moments ago, he could barely move.

He brought his hands up to examine them, opening and closing them to feel that he indeed had control of his body again. That was when he realized there was something on his left wrist. It was a black leather strap with a two-inch wide LCD screen on it that now displayed the numbers 49:57. As the 7 blinked to 6, Genesis looked around the room, putting aside his anger and focused getting to work. If what Sephiroth had said was true- and his unnecessarily elaborate plans always are- then he didn't have time to be angry. He needed to save Loveless. He'll get his revenge afterwards.

Hanging on the back of the door in the far corner of the room was…a black suit. He glanced at it but had already made his decision before he even considered the possibility that it may have been intended for him. Even though he was still in his lounging clothes- a simple red t-shirt and jeans- he'd feel a lot less like a tool if he didn't accept the more dignified attire and become another one of Sephiroth's minions.

Leaning against the door was his red rapier and at the sight of it, his face softened and he even smiled a bit. At least he knew not to take away a soldier's weapon of choice. After all, Sephiroth needed him to kill…what? The entire monster population on Cactus Island to fill the quota? In two days?

Genesis let out a sigh of annoyance as he took the rapier comfortably into his right hand and flung the door open, revealing a divided island. On the right was a vast desert, derived of everything but sand and Cactuars, on the left was a lush forest where the Tonberries resided, and up ahead was a cavernous mountain of a hill where their Kings ruled. And just in front of him was a bunch of…

_Idiots_, Genesis thought.

"No, no, I swear to Minerva that if you dance like them, the Cactuars'll come and swarm you, I swear!" one of four Third Class SOLDIERs said to the other he was facing.

"No way, man, you're out of your mind," he replied with a laugh. "Why the hell would I want to be swarmed by a bunch of Cactuars anyway?"

"C'mon, I'll give you a hundred gil if you do it!" egged on the one beside him.

"It really works, you gotta believe us! Kunsel knows someone who's done it before, righ-" he turned to his left to face him only to cut himself off when he saw Genesis coming out of the small building.

Kunsel, who was leaning against the outside wall of it, perked up at the sudden silence and followed the SOLDIER's gaze to meet Genesis. At once, the peaceful smile he was wearing was wiped away and he faced him, stood up straight, feet together, and brought a hand up to his head in a salute. "SOLDIER, Second Class, Kunsel, at your service, sir!"

The four men in front of the building also lined up straight in front of him, awaiting instructions.

"Where are the others?" Genesis asked him, noting that these five SOLDIERs were in their regular uniforms rather than the black suits.

Kunsel let his right hand fall to his side. "There are currently five thousand infantrymen on this island, sir. They have been split into teams, each lead by a Third, and are currently occupying the eastern and western portions of the island. The ingredients brought back from the monsters are being gathered in an area south of here. And, ah…" Kunsel corrected himself before letting anymore words out of his mouth. "We can gather them up if you'd like to instruct them yourself, sir."

Genesis shook his head slightly. "No need," he said, looking around. There was no time to waste. "All of you," he said, looking to SOLDIERS. "Follow me." And with that, he took off straight ahead towards the Tonberry Kings.

The four men let him run ahead of them. They didn't move. Their eyes were on Kunsel. It was only when he turned to them and gave a firm nod that they started to chase after him.

Kunsel stayed behind, taking a few idle steps forwards as they ran off as he simply took in the scenery.

Putting his hands on both sides of his SOLDIER helmet, he lifted it off, letting his flattened silvery hair free of its entrapment. He ran a hand through his hair, giving it a quick ruffle to loosen it, and letting the strands fall where they fell. He shook his head a bit to shake some of the hair out of his eyes and he smiled.

The island was peaceful, all right. Regardless of the mass slaughter needed to obtain the ingredients for…hair products…the island was peaceful. He didn't know where his friend Zack and the others were, or what exactly they were doing, but here, where he was stationed, it was peaceful, and he quite enjoyed it. One day, he'll have a bigger role in the world, the new world. For now, though, he was content in playing a smaller part.

He took a deep breath in and out. "Stage two of Operation Genocide commencing," he said quietly to himself as he stood there for a while with his eyes closed, simply feeling the gentle breeze on his bare face. It was a rare thing for him, being so open like this. And at the sudden realization that his face was completely exposed, he snapped out of his tranquility.

He looked around to where he leaned his standard SOLDIER sword against the wall of the building and took it by the handle. He slid his helmet back on with one hand and, starting with a bit of a hop, Kusnel began to run north, catching up with Genesis and the others.

**

"Wh-who," Harmony's voice escaped from her softly as the surprise of the mystery man in Sephiroth's apartment left her almost speechless. But she forced the words out, not caring how weak she sounded compared to her usual self. "Who are yo-" Harmony was silenced as the man pulled her towards him and pushed her against the kitchen wall in one swift action, covering her mouth with his right gloved hand.

Russia looked off to the left, listening as a phone's ringing called out the resident president from out of his room.

When she heard the sound of Sephiroth opening the door and stepping towards the phone in the living room, muttering the words "What now..", Harmony tried to scream for help, but Russia had caught her before she could utter what would be a muffled cry. Without warning, he quickly brought his face closer to hers, tightened his grip on her mouth, and brought a finger to his lips to silently hush her. Harmony, as close to the wall as she could possibly get, watched with widened eyes as the man again stopped to listen to the goings on in the other room just down the hall.

"Hello?" Sephiroth's voice filled the apartment. After a pause, he sighed and said, "No, Tseng. Everything has already been done. The Turks are just going to have to get a new uniform". Then, Russia heard what he wanted to hear: the sound of his footsteps echoing away from him as Sephiroth continued his phone call, and the sound of his door closing again.

Harmony struggled harder against his grip, trying to get free, but Russia would not allow it. The smile he wore when she first saw him was gone and what replaced it was a stern, no-nonsense expression of determination.

Keeping his hand on her mouth, he turned the blue-painted woman around and put one arm across her neck to keep her close to him. With a quick look around the wall to make sure Sephiroth was indeed gone, he moved swiftly towards the apartment door down the hall. Harmony's feet dragged behind, almost stumbling to keep up with him, and when he realized this, Russia merely held her up higher and carried her out the door.

"It's a good thing you're so easy to control, da?" he said, once they cleared the apartment.

**

"Has anyone found anything yet? Any sign of the products?" Cloud said into the radio, trying to reorganize the troops.

The only reply that came from across Ouran Academy was an intermittent chorus of "No", "Nothing here", and "No, sir".

Cloud let the slight disappointment and frustration come and go, not letting it interfere with his thoughts. "Keep looking."

"Yes, sir."

Cloud looked to his own team now. "Leon, guard the door," he commanded. "Make sure the girls don't get back in here and that the door stays closed," he said, making sure to emphasize the last part.

Leon Kennedy nodded and went to his post at the door, even if a bit reluctantly.

"I'll help you move to cow out of here when I get back."

Cloud walked over to the right where the others were. "Tidus, Link," he called out to get their attention, but his voice was nearly drowned out by their yelling.

"Link! Link! Stop it! Get a hold of yourself!" Tidus said, trying to restrain the Hylian's raised arms that now threatened to let the last of the many expensive pots in the room drop.

"NO! There's treasure inside! I can_ smell_ it!" Link sneered with increasing intensity as he tried to free himself from the blonde.

The tiny shards of porcelain crunched underfoot as Cloud stepped closer with an authoritative air that his teammates seemed to sense. They froze together and looked at Cloud, who simply gave them a steely stare.

"Uh, right," Tidus said, quickly putting on a cheesy smile to try and make Cloud lighten up. "Back to wor-"

"HA!" Link yelled in victory as Tidus's grip on his arms loosened, allowing him to carry on with destroying all the pots in the room. But the sound of porcelain smashing on marble was not the only sound that echoed throughout the large room.

Cloud turned his attention in the direction of the club room's back closet whose large white doors were now widely opened and inside, Zack's loud laughter could be heard.

"You two," Cloud said to Tidus and Link. "Search everything in this room. That includes cupboards, shelves, drawers, couch cushions, anything. Take out the chandeliers if you have to," he ordered and began towards the backroom before Tidus or Link could respond.

Tidus sighed and looked to Link. "Well, I guess you got us a headstart at least."

In the other room, Cloud stepped in to watch the Bravo team (Zack, Irvine, and Zelos) at work, but couldn't quite tell if they were searching for any sign of the products like they were supposed to, or…looking for another prop to complete their own costumes. The three notorious womanizers had lost themselves in a vast array of different clothing as they searched through large walk-in closet labeled "Cosplay".

"Zack," Cloud said dully in his direction. He knew that what he was going to say was obvious, so he didn't bother to continue with his sentence. Still, he waited for an explanation.

Zack turned around with a grin on his face. "So?" he said, opening his arms to display the World War II officer's greatcoat he now wore with pride. "Whaddaya think? Check it out," he said, moving the coat behind him as he placed his hands on his hips and looked up and off to the side. "Captain Zack Fairness!"

Cloud's silence was enough of a response for Zack to continue talking.

"Ah, c'mon, don't be like that! I look awesome, don't I?" he said with a laugh.

Cloud's face was unreadable. "Are you going to keep that?"

"Hm? Why not?" Zack readjusted the coat onto his back and fixed the collar behind his neck. "I mean, Sephiroth has a longcoat. Genesis has a longcoat. Why not me? I'm a First now. I think I deserve a badass longcoat!"

Cloud still refused to give him a response that even hinted at emotion. Instead, he simply asked, "Can you fight with it?"

Zack was silenced. He didn't think about it. The greatcoat was quite comfortable and he liked the look of it. He raised and lowered his arms to test out how the fabric moved, then made a curious face. He folded his arms and thought for a bit. With the coat, he wouldn't be able to carry around large swords anymore. He might even have to switch to guns. That wouldn't feel right… Plus, Sephiroth's and Genesis's coats were both made of leather. And tailor-made. And with almost skin-tight sleeves. In fact, their coats were hardly coats at all, but rather fitted capes…hm…

"Zack," Cloud said, snapping him out of thought.

"Hm? Oh yeah, you're still here…"

"Have you found anything?"

"Ah, nope! But I found this!" Zack turned around and when he did, the tail of the coat fluttered behind him, making him laugh. "Oh man, I am SO keeping this," he chuckled to himself. He bent down and picked something up before turning back to Cloud, this time, mindfully trying to get the coat to flutter out more. He grinned at Cloud as he presented him with…

"What is that?" Cloud asked.

"A jar of sparkles," he said proudly.

"Sparkles…" Cloud repeated, watching at the sparkles, like glints of light, float around inside the jar.

"A jar of sparkles," Zack confirmed with a grin. As his smile exposed his teeth, there was a little glimmer that appeared at his lips. It was obvious he had been playing with it.

"L-let me see," Cloud said, reaching out to it.

Zack's smile disappeared and he was suddenly very serious as he clutched it to his chest with both hands, guarding it as if it were something precious. "No."

"Just…get back to work, Zack," Cloud finally said, unsure of why he, too, wanted some of those sparkles…if only just slightly. "You two as well," he said to Irvine and Zelos.

**

"You know," Russia said as he untied the scarf he had tied around Harmony's eyes. "You shouldn't go around like that."

With the scarf gone, Harmony could see…but just barely. The room they were in was completely dark, save for the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling that shone down above the centre of the plain wooden table she was seated at.

"You could catch a cold," he whispered gently into her ear behind her. His voice sent shivers down her spine and she closed her eyes tightly in disgust.

"Here," he said, standing upright to undo his thick winter coat.

Harmony began to turn her head slightly, trying to see what he was doing behind her, but the sudden, loud slam of hollow metal on wood extremely close to her made her jump and look back again to see what it was. On the table was a water faucet pipe.

Her silver-dyed brows knotted in confusion, but before she could even speculate why the man who abducted her had a faucet pipe, she was again shocked by a loud slam in front of her. This time, Russia had put down a clear glass bottle with "водка" embossed on it.

Harmony simply stared at the two objects on the table. She had never been so confused in her life.

Then, she felt a bit of fabric touch her arm. She looked to her right to see the grey-blond man offering his coat to her with a gentle smile.

She looked away from him uncomfortably, unsure of what to do, but the gesture was more of an order than an offering. Whether she refused or accepted it didn't matter.

With a hand, Russia moved the practically naked woman forward a bit and draped the coat over her shoulders behind her.

"There, isn't that better?" he said, walking over to the other side of the table.

Harmony's eyes followed her captor, but she quickly looked away when she realized that he wasn't wearing anything except his scarf, gloves, pants, and boots. She was uncomfortable enough with what had already happened. She didn't need herself making it even more so. But then again….

She watched him from the corner of her eyes as he took a seat in front of her on the opposite side of the table. She examined him in all his oddity, watching him closely...at least she started that way. Her eyes soon began trailing down his face, to the scarf that loosely wrapped around his neck, to his broad shoulders, to his bare che-

Harmony mentally slapped herself, quickly looking away as the man leaned over the table to reach for something near her.

"Want some?" he asked innocently.

Harmony looked back to him with mild shock clearly written on her face.

Russia giggled and motioned to the bottle of clear alcohol now in his hand. "It'll warm you up," he said as he uncapped it.

Harmony looked away again, the blue paint hiding the pink in her cheeks.

"No?" He said with a bit of a frown. He shrugged, then took a satisfying shot straight from the bottle.

Recapping it and putting it aside, he watched the blue woman for a moment, a move that was unintentionally more intimidating to Harmony than anything he could ever say or do.

A pleasant smile crept onto his face, making her shudder, as he listened to the goings-on back at the Allied Forces conference room from his radio ear-piece.

"HELLLO~!!" A loud voice yelled at him, "This is me, America, your commander. How are things on the enemy front? I've got special new orders that I came up with myself, so listen up! Number One-"

"What the hell are you talking about!?" someone else interrupted him. "You're not allowed to give new orders without our approval first, you git! Give me that microph-"

There was a struggle between the two over the microphone, with it sending out sharp wails of feedback, but Russia didn't mind.

"R-russia! Russia! I order you to-"

"Gyaahhh!! G-get off of me, you fat bast-!"

Russia heard a ruffling as the microphone again changed hands.

"Russia-ah! How is it there? Is there any space for me to build a little town?"

Again, there was a ruffling, but in the background, Russia could hear, "Oh, cher Chine, now's not the time to talk about that."

"HA! Guess who's got the mic now, Bushy Brows!"

"Oh no, you don't!"

The microphone squeaked and screeched as it was fought for, but then suddenly, Russia heard a loud bang as the microphone fell onto the floor.

Then, he heard someone pick it up and softly say, "Hello, um…Russia. Can you hear me? This is Canada. Um…I just want to say…do your bes-"

Before he could finish speaking, though, a voice in the background overpowered his.

"LOOK! A UNICORN!"

"Where!?" the other voice responded promptly.

The loud muffled movements echoing from the other side told Russia that it was ripped away from Canada's hands by a more boisterous nation.

"HA! HA! GOT IT NOW!"

There was more ruffling and another bang after that as the microphone again fell to the floor, this time, sending an incredibly loud screech over to Russia, then complete silence.

Harmony finally got up the courage to look at him again. "W-who are you and what do you want from me?" she blurted out, even surprising herself.

Russia turned his attention back onto her. "Oh?" he mused, frowning, slightly irked by the harsh tone of her voice. "I just want to talk a bit. It's been so long since I left my friends to come here, so I haven't had anyone to talk to," he said as his hand drifted over the table towards the pipe. He picked it up and sat back in his chair, his eyes floating over the metal tube.

Harmony eyed the faucet pipe in his hands and swallowed hard. "What's…that for?" she asked, cautious, yet trying to regain some of her composure.

"Hm? This?" he said, now lightly tapping one end of the pipe into his left palm. "This is just my lucky charm. I always seem to get what I want when I'm holding this." He flashed a closed-eyed smile at her. "I wonder if it'll work this time."

Harmony sank back into her chair as a cloud of dread fell over her, but suddenly froze, frigid, when she remembered whose coat was draped around her. The residual heat left from Russia himself just made her even colder. She was in an unknown location with limited visibility, and Russia was both in front of her and behind her. She was trapped.

"There are so many things I want to know about this world," Russia said, his darkened eyes lowering onto her. "And you will tell me all about it, won't you?"

The light bulb, the only source of light in the room, flickered a bit, threatening to cut out.

**

Vincent looked up from his quiet contemplation when he heard the quick footsteps of Reno's team running towards them. Squall and Rude did the same, although, from afar, they didn't look like they were doing anything.

As Reno reached the rest of the team, the others behind him slowed down, but Reno went straight for the classroom they had been stalking out. "Alright!" he said with no regard to his volume anymore. "Let's break down this door and drag this guy out of here!" Reno gave a quick peek through the classroom window (that was covered on the inside by a piece of paper) before trying for the doorknob.

"Wait!" Squall sprung to life suddenly when he realized that Reno was doing, but Reno would not wait. He had been waiting for too long already. Just a door separated him and his enemy, and he would get through it.

With a quick little turn of the knob, Reno flung the door open, but just as he tried to take a step inside, he was struck with a surge of power that sent him flying backwards onto the floor.

"Ugh! What was that?" Reno said, sitting himself up on his elbows. His whole body ached in disapproval of the movement.

Squall looked to him with slight disgust. Reno was more brash than usual, he noticed. "You think we didn't try that?" He glanced over his shoulder to where the open door showed a blurred out version of the classroom. "There's some type of barrier that keeps us from advancing. It's probably because of what happened to the people in this world- frozen. That means we're frozen in place too."

"We did run here pretty quickly," Zidane said, his breathing a bit heavier than usual as he caught his breath. "Maybe it hasn't been ten minutes yet."

Reno brushed himself off as he stood up. "Yeah? Well, I've had enough of this world." He took out his Electro-Mag Rod and turned it on. Electricity crackled from it and yellow lines of energy crawled over the tip of it, ready for action. "Angeal! I know you can hear me!" He started to yell as he ran towards the open classroom, EMR posed to attack. "And I demand you take down this barrier!"

"Reno, no!" Zidane yelled behind him as the others merely watched.

"Uoryaa!!" Reno screamed as he attacked the barrier with the EMR.

When he made contact, a painful surge of power went through his right arm and then throughout his body, and for a slight moment, he felt as if time had stood still, but then all of a sudden, Reno felt like he was flying….then he felt his whole body crumble to the ground as he slid to a stop across the classroom floor.

Squall covered his eyes with a hand. "You idiot…" he muttered.

Reno struggled to open his eyes when the numbness in his body subsided seconds after breaking through the barrier.

"Uh…um…" he stuttered, dazed.

The dimness of the classroom was something his eyes needed a second or two to get accustomed too, but when they did, all he saw were several eyes staring down on him with an eerie, unnatural glow. That glow wasn't mako.

"This…can't be good…" he muttered to himself as Squall led the others into the classroom to see what was going on.

Reno slowly stood up as his allies joined him.

For the first time, they were face to face with the main target- Mitsukuni Haninozuka, also known as "Honey".

Reno raised an eyebrow in confusion when he realized that it was him. The short, brown-eyed blonde that they were looking for was right in front of him, but the fact that he looked so young…

Reno turned to Squall and the others. "You've gotta be kidding me. He's supposed to Sephi-"

"Shh!" Squall snapped, but Reno had already let it slip.

"-roth's enemy?"

The dagger-sharp gazes from the white-uniformed students sitting in the desks surrounding Honey in the front quickly shifted to them.

"Mitsukuni…" A taller, black-haired student in the same uniform as Honey muttered to him.

For a moment, the two parties remained at a stand-still, as if trying to stare each other down. And even though all the windows were closed, there was a slight breeze that went through the classroom, making everyone's hair sway softly. No one questioned the phantom breeze. The situation merely called for it…

Then, the silence was broken.

"Get them!" Honey commanded in his high, child-like voice.

**

"Yo, Cloud!" Zack yelled as he came out of the backroom and into the main area of Music Room #3, holding the jar of sparkles in one hand and the orange cat in the other. "There's nothing in there. Don't know what those guys were hiding, but there's nothing in there."

Cloud looked to the others for a status update as well and Tidus delivered, "Nothing here, either."

Cloud sighed and said, "Well...then, we may search somewhere el-"

Cloud was cut off by Zack's awkward yelp of surprise as the orange cat suddenly came to a very sharp-clawed life, putting Zack off balance as he tried to balance the cat and the rather large jar at the same time.

The cat let out a high-pitched roar of sorts and sprung out towards Zack's face, claws aiming for the eyes. Zack was forced to pull away, protecting the jar more than himself. He regained his footing a few steps behind where he was, gripping the jar with both hands to ensure its safety.

"W-What happened? What's going on!?" the cat hissed as he arched his back, exposing his sharp fangs.

Zack looked back with widened eyes. "Kitty! You can talk! Oh, Aerith is going to love you!"

"What!? I'm not going anywhere!" he yelled, his fur standing on end. "I am going to TAKE YOU DOWN!" He stamped a paw on the floor in front of him.

Zack took a few steps backwards, keeping his eyes on the cat. "Here," he said Irvine as he handed the jar over to him. "Keep it safe." He began to step forwards again, but suddenly turned again to point a finger straight at the mock-cowboy. "And don't use any of it!"

Shedding the military coat off his shoulders, Zack took it in both hands and shook it out. "Alright…" he said. "Let's go!" With a smirk, he pounced on the cat with the coat, and as he held it down, the cat hissed, shrieked, and tried to claw his way out of it, cursing in his human voice all the while.

"Yuki! Yuki, where are you!" The suddenly animated cow called out as he began to step around the room with his head down, searching like a dog.

Cloud and the others watched the animals closely but their attention was quickly switched to the door.

"Kyo! Yuki! Haru!" a rather high-pitched voice yelled from the other side. "Guys, help me! Help me, please! Hurry! There's a bunch of girls after me and-!"

"Mo-" Haru yelled but cut himself off. "No! Get away!"

Cloud gave a nod to Leon, who opened one of the large doors and a small blond boy stumbled onto the floor inside. Leon closed the door behind him.

Cloud examined the boy as he looked up at him. Small stature, brown eyes, blond hair: the traits matched their mark and that signaled Cloud to draw his weapon and point the large Buster Sword copy right at the child.

The boy's eyes grew wide and he yet out a bit of a yelp before shuffling himself backwards so that his back was straight up against the door. Cloud took a step forward to keep his threat very real. He took his orders seriously, and he took invasions of his personal property even more so. Do not mess with Mr. Spiky and his hair gel.

"P-please! Don't hurt me! I didn't do anything!" the boy yelled out at him.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Haru yelled from behind him and started to charge with his head bowed, exposing the small horns on his head that peeked out from under his hair.

Leon cocked his gun and stood with his back to Cloud, pointing the gun straight at the raging cow. When he realized what had happened, Haru forced himself to stop.

The cow growled, which actually caused Leon to hold back a smile.

"Just…don't hurt him," a hushed voice came from the ground in front of Haru.

"Yuki!" Haru exclaimed as he lowered his head for the mouse to hop onto his nose and climb onto his head.

"Where are the products?" Cloud demanded, keeping the point of the sword just inches away from the boy's face.

The boy held Cloud's gaze and returned it with a sneer of his own. "I…I don't know what you're talking about!"

Cloud closed his eyes and scoffed before saying, "The only thing worse than a thief is a liar. Now tell me-where are the products?"

Zack, holding down Kyo with his coat, looked up at his friend when he heard him say that, and he smirked to himself. Cloud was like a hormonal pregnant woman without any ice-cream, he thought.

"I don't know where they are, honest!" the boy yelled at Cloud, but that only irritated him.

Cloud swung the sword behind his shoulder, affixing it to the magnet on his back. He then stepped slowly towards the boy, who merely watched him as the taller man in front of him blocked out the light coming from around him. He bent down, grabbed the boy by the collar of his light blue shirt and held him against the wall. The boy tried to struggle out of his grip, but Cloud was too strong. And a bit scary.

Though his anger was apparent in his actions, Cloud voice depicted nothing but his usual stoicism. "You will admit the truth, be it to me…or to Sephiroth."

At the mention of his name, the boy's eyes widened even more and his arms and legs fell limp, before struggling like he never struggled before. "No! No! Not him! No! You guys~! Help!"

At that, Haru huffed angrily and began to charge, regardless of Leon threatening to shoot.

When Cloud heard the hoofbeats behind him, he turned to look over his shoulder to his teammate. "Leon, the door," he muttered.

Leon quickly took two steps to stand in front of the door, and when Haru, blinded with rage, simply followed his target and was getting close, Leon stepped aside and opened the door, letting both the cow with the mouse on his head run straight into the horde of girls that they had escaped from not too long ago. Leon held the door shut tight to make sure no one came back in, muffling the high-pitched screams of fright, confusion, and delight from the girls outside.

The cat that Zack had pinned down with his coat was still frantic, and the lump under the jacket would not stay still. "When I get out, I am going to DESTROY you!" Kyo hissed as he slashed at the thick fabric, one paw after another. "If you hurt him, I'll-!"

"Attention all units," Cloud said into the radio with one hand still on the boy's collar. "This is Alpha leader Strife. We have captured enemy Honey. If there's nothing left here…move out."

Tidus stood back a bit from Cloud with his arms crossed, examining the boy with a confused look on his face. Something about him wasn't right. Wasn't Honey a martial arts master? He would've put up a fight instead of being manhandled so easily- anyone would if they could. And if he had the courage to steal from Sephiroth, why did he cower and look so frightened merely at the mention of his name?

"Hey…Cloud," he started, but was cut off by a desperate call from Reno over the radio in reply to the Alpha leader's earlier statement.

"C-Cloud!" Reno's voice came through strained. A loud crash could be heard then his grunts and breathing as the Turk worked to get out of the fray. "The hell're you talking about? Honey's right here and we're in serious heat! There's- ugh!" Reno was interrupted again by something. This time, Cloud could hear the ever so familiar sound of electricity in the air, but whether or not it was from Reno's weapon could not be determined from the radio alone.

"Reno!" Cloud called out to him when the pause was too long for comfort. When there was no response, Cloud looked back to the boy and clutched his collar tighter. "Who are you?" he said, his voice darker than usual out of concern for what had happened to his comrades.

The boy looked away, trying to avoid eye contact.

Cloud stared at him for a moment before looking over his shoulder to Link, who he knew held a rather lethal-looking clawshot. "Link, tie him up" he said, hoping that one of Link's multiple personalities would catch on to what he was saying.

A composed Link perked up at the sound of his name and gave a nod to Cloud, taking the clawshot out of his…magical, stretchable, and invisible pocket of weapons…

Cloud looked back to the boy. "If you don't talk now, you'll talk in front of the General," he said slowly, and just when he finished his sentence, Link deployed the clawshot. The long metal cord spewed out of the handle with a menacing, cold rattling, and the three claws at the end of it opened up like jaws then dug in deeper and deeper into the walls when it touched the surface of it, just inches away from the boy's head. Chips of plaster rained down to the floor from where the claws pierced the surface.

The boy let out a scream, followed by a string of groveling as he thrashed against Cloud's grip. "Okay, okay, okay! Stop! I-I-I'm just a lookalike, a diversion! Let me go! Let me g-!"

Suddenly, right in front of Cloud, there was a large puff of smoke that seemed to have come from nowhere, enveloping the boy and causing Cloud to close his eyes and turn away. When he opened his eyes again, the boy was gone, yet his clothes still remained in Cloud's hands.

"Huh…?" Cloud looked down, then around, perplexed at where the boy had gone, but soon spotted something odd hopping off into the backroom of the clubroom- a yellow rabbit.

"Cloud!" Reno yelled over the radio. "They're way too strong for us to handle alone. Haaaah!" he exhaled in frustration. "There're four… five of them with incredibly powerful elemental attacks. We need backup now, Clo-" Reno again was cut off, but this time, Cloud could hear him yell out his comrade's name. "ZIDANE!" he screamed as a great roar of fire could be heard in the background.

That was all Cloud needed to hear, and both the Alpha and Bravo teams didn't need a command to know what to do.

Dropping the clothes in his hands, the Alpha leader drew his weapon again from his back, and led his team out of the clubroom and towards the battlefield of the math class.

Zack scooped the cat up, still bundled up in the military greatcoat, and quickly ran into the backroom to pick up his sword before running out of the door himself. His teammates put the items they were made to carry down, but when Zack saw them from the corner of his eye, he stopped, turned around, and yelled back into the clubroom, "What're you doing, guys!? I didn't tell you to put them down!"

"It's all junk, Zack," Irvine responded bluntly.

"What?!" Zack said, genuinely offended. "It's not junk! Look, I'm your leader and that's an order. Now pick up the jar of sparkles and let's go!"

Irvine shook his head in disbelief but did as he was told anyway.

"And the stuff in the bag too!"

Zelos, behind him, was in charge of that- a rather large pink plastic bag that required him to carry it with both hands.

"That's right," Zack said with a nod, relishing in his position of power. "Now," he smirked, "let's go!"

**

Sephiroth winced as his hairbrush abruptly stopped, refusing to slide down his long silver strands further. He wriggled the brush out of his hair and placed the chrome brush on the side of his bathroom sink. Bringing the troublesome mat from behind his head up to examine it in the mirror, he began to detangle the area with his fingers, muttering, "Damned Shinra shampoo…"

**

Russia tucked the bottle of alcohol back inside his coat, then picked up the pipe on the table. "Remember," he said to Harmony, who now sat with her head hung and her eyes covered by the silver strands of her wig. "This is our little secret. You won't tell anyone, will you?"

He turned his back on her to walk towards the door, hidden from Harmony by the darkness. He giggled a bit, then added, "We're friends…right?"

Harmony didn't move. She simply sat there, defeated.

When Russia got to the door, he stopped, and took a deep breath in and out.

"Well, it's okay," he said softly as he exhaled. "Not a lot of people want to be my friend. But I know, when this is all over, I will come back to this world one day…because I have at least one friend here. I met her on the way over- a nice girl in pink. She gave me this flower," he said, looking down at the small yellow flower with its stem tucked into his right glove. "She said that she wanted this whole world to be filled with flowers. Wouldn't that be wonderful?" he said, looking back over his shoulder at Harmony.

Still, Harmony would not respond with words or actions. The great, strong leader of the Silver Elite was now reduced to a lifeless doll, positioned on the chair in the dark. Small, dejected, pitiful…_Mother? Hardly. Not anymore._

"Maybe when I return, that would have already happened." He paused for a moment, looked up, and closed his eyes. "The people here are so nice. Such a warm, beautiful place. Maybe when I return...your world, and my world..." he trailed off and opened his eyes, simply staring up into the darkness. "We can be one…big, happy family."

His smile returned again. He was always smiling. "No one will ever be lonely again," he said cheerfully.

Finally, he reached for the doorknob and pushed the door open. "I look forward to our next meeting." Russia's voice lowered a bit as he stepped out, leaving her with the words "Do svidaniya".

Harmony closed her eyes when she heard the door clicked shut, but remained motionless even after the man was gone.

_Sephiroth… I'm so sorry._

_

* * *

  
_

**A/N**: So, two crazy people go into a room…only one comes out.  
Apologies for my failure at writing Russia…and for (almost) villainy Cloud. OTL  
"Do svidaniya" = "Goodbye"  
(Russia's character song "Winter" kicks major ass. Hetalia fans, you must listen to it!)


End file.
